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I am a huge Bogart fan but I have to say that I liked Powell's Marlowe in this film more than Bogie's in The Big Sleep. And I love The Big Sleep which I had seen at least 3 times before ever seeing Murder, My Sweet for the first time a few years ago. I was actually very surprised I felt this way after seeing the movie, but there you are. If you haven't seen Murder, My Sweet yet you are in for a real treat. Great film.

It's not because she is a woman and a reporter that he behaves that way but it's because he knows she is lying. And who likes to be played by anyone? She actually traps herself by lying to him. He just locks the door so she can't leave before he finds out who she is and what she really wants.

The first few minutes of Laura sets up a couple of things quickly. The first, the class differences between Waldo and Mark in the way Waldo treats Mark and his condenscension towards him and the police in general and it is quite obvious how vain and narcissistic Waldo is. We also find out Mark is pretty sharp himself. The second, the not so subtle hint that Waldo is homosexual is apparent in the fact that Waldo invites Mark into his bathroom to talk to him and then after remembering Mark's brave exploits of a few years before he actually shows admiration for him. The real obvious bit is when Waldo asks Mark to hand him his robe and off camera Waldo stands up and faces Mark as it is handed to him. All of this is confirmed later in the film if you haven't seen it before. You also find out it's a jungle out there no matter where you are in social/economic strata.

Woman On The Run was so enjoyable to watch. Killer dialogue and no wonder Ann Sheridan wanted to do the movie, she has a great part, she is the movie, Simple but engaging story, all those great San Francisco locations photographed so well. Really well directed, lean and mean with no fluff at 77 minutes. The Film Noir Foundation saved a great little noir!

I am wondering why TCM picked Friday to show film noir? I just got TCM a couple of weeks ago and don't have a DVR. Of course, if it was a weekend day I would probably never leave the house!