Lady in the Lake
Encyclopedia
Lady in the Lake is a 1947 American film noir
that marked the directorial debut of Robert Montgomery
, who also stars in the film. The picture also features Audrey Totter
, Lloyd Nolan
, Tom Tully
, Leon Ames
and Jayne Meadows
. The murder mystery was an adaptation of the 1944 Raymond Chandler
novel The Lady in the Lake
.
Chandler, a twice Oscar nominated screenwriter who did not author the screenplay for this or any other screen adaptations of his own novels, disdained Montgomery's ambition to create a cinematic version of the first-person narrative style of his Phillip Marlowe novels. With the exception of a couple of times when Montgomery (in character) addresses the audience directly, the entire film is shot from the viewpoint of the central character
, Marlowe. The audience sees only what he does. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
promoted the film with the claim that it was the first of its kind and the most revolutionary style of film since the introduction of the talkies
. The movie was also unusual for having virtually no musical soundtrack
.
, publishing executive Adrienne Fromsett (Totter) hires him to locate the wife of her boss, Derace Kingsby (Ames). One month earlier, Chrystal Kingsby had sent her husband a telegram saying she was heading to Mexico to divorce him and marry a man named Chris Lavery (Dick Simmons
). Fromsett, however, had recently seen Lavery in neighboring Bay City. It quickly becomes obvious to Marlowe that Fromsett wants her boss for herself (for his money as she later admits).
When Marlowe goes to see Lavery, the Southerner professes to be unaware of any trip to Mexico. Lavery then sucker punches the detective. Marlowe wakes up in jail, where he is questioned by Captain Kane (Tom Tully
) and a very belligerent Lieutenant DeGarmot (Lloyd Nolan
). When Marlowe refuses to divulge anything about his case, Kane warns him not to cause trouble in his district and releases him.
Marlowe learns that the body of a woman has been recovered from a lake owned by Kingsby, and Kingsby's caretaker there charged with the murder of his wife Muriel. Fromsett suspects that Chrystal is the real killer, as she and Muriel hated each other. Little Fawn Lake was also where Chrystal was last seen. Marlowe investigates and reports to Fromsett that Muriel was an alias for a woman named Mildred Havelend, and that she was hiding from a tough cop - whose description fits DeGarmot.
Marlowe goes to call on Lavery again. Inside the unlocked house, he instead encounters Lavery's landlady, Mrs. Falbrook, holding a gun she claims to have just found. Upstairs, he finds Lavery dead, shot several times in the shower. He also finds a handkerchief with the monogram "A F".
Before calling the police, he interrupts a Christmas party at the publishing house to confront Fromsett. In private, she denies killing Lavery. Kingsby comes in and, after learning that Fromsett hired Marlowe to find Chrystal, tells her theirs will be strictly a business relationship from now on. A furious Fromsett fires the private eye. Marlowe immediately gets another job; Kingsby hires him to find his wife.
Marlowe then informs the police of Laverty's death. At the scene, he suggests that Muriel was hiding from DeGarmot. The two men scuffle, before Kane separates them and sends Marlowe on his way.
Marlowe obtains more information on Muriel from a newspaper contact. It turns out that Muriel had been a suspect in the suspicious death of her previous employer's wife. The investigating detective, DeGarmot, ruled it a suicide, but the victim's parents strongly disagreed.
When Marlowe goes to question them, he finds they have been intimidated into keeping silent. Afterwards, he is driven off the road by DeGarmot. Regaining consciousness after the crash, he manages to get to a telephone and call Fromsett for help. She takes him back to her apartment, where she tells him that they have much in common and that she has fallen in love with him.
Kingsby shows up and informs Marlowe he has received a telegram from his wife, asking for money. Marlowe agrees to drop it off, as Kingsby is being followed by police detectives. Placing his life in Fromsett's hands, he instructs her to have the police follow him after ten minutes, following a trail of rice he will leave behind.
The woman Marlowe meets turns out to be Mrs. Falbrook / Muriel / Mildred Havelend. She is responsible for all of the murders (including Chrystal, the lady in the lake). DeGarmot had fallen in love with her and helped cover up the first, but she ran out on him. DeGarmot tracks them down (having overheard Fromsett speaking to Captain Kane). He plans to kill them both and stage it to look like they shot each other. DeGarmot murders Mildred, but Kane gets there just in time to gun down the crooked cop. Marlowe and Fromsett leave for New York together to start a life together.
broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on February 9, 1948 with Montgomery and Totter reprising their roles.
BBC Radio 4
, as part of its Classic Chandler series, broadcast on February 12, 2011, a 90 minute production of Lady in the Lake, starring Toby Stephens
.
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
that marked the directorial debut of Robert Montgomery
Robert Montgomery (actor)
Robert Montgomery was an American actor and director.- Early life :Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the New...
, who also stars in the film. The picture also features Audrey Totter
Audrey Totter
Audrey Mary Totter is an American actress and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract star of Austrian-Slovene and Swedish descent...
, Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
, Tom Tully
Tom Tully
Tom Tully was an American actor.-Biography:Born in Durango, Colorado, Thomas Kane Tulley served in the United States Navy, was a private pilot and worked as junior reporter for the Denver Post before going into acting because he felt the pay was better. Tully started out on stage before eventually...
, Leon Ames
Leon Ames (actor)
Leon Ames was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing fatherly figures in such films as Meet Me in St. Louis , as Judy Garland's father, and in Little Women ....
and Jayne Meadows
Jayne Meadows
-Early life:Jayne Meadows was born as Jayne Cotter in Wu-ch'ang, in Heilongjiang, China, to Episcopal missionary parents, the Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter and his wife, the former Ida Miller Taylor, who had married in 1915. Meadows is the older sister of the late actress Audrey Meadows. She...
. The murder mystery was an adaptation of the 1944 Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
novel The Lady in the Lake
The Lady in the Lake
The Lady in the Lake is a 1943 detective novel by Raymond Chandler featuring, as do all his major works, the Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe.-Introduction:...
.
Chandler, a twice Oscar nominated screenwriter who did not author the screenplay for this or any other screen adaptations of his own novels, disdained Montgomery's ambition to create a cinematic version of the first-person narrative style of his Phillip Marlowe novels. With the exception of a couple of times when Montgomery (in character) addresses the audience directly, the entire film is shot from the viewpoint of the central character
Point of view shot
A point of view shot is a short film scene that shows what a character is looking at . It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction...
, Marlowe. The audience sees only what he does. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
promoted the film with the claim that it was the first of its kind and the most revolutionary style of film since the introduction of the talkies
Sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...
. The movie was also unusual for having virtually no musical soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
.
Plot
Tired of the low pay of his profession, hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe (Montgomery) submits a murder story to Kingsby Publications. He is invited to the premises to discuss his work, but soon realizes it is merely a ploy. On Christmas EveChristmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
, publishing executive Adrienne Fromsett (Totter) hires him to locate the wife of her boss, Derace Kingsby (Ames). One month earlier, Chrystal Kingsby had sent her husband a telegram saying she was heading to Mexico to divorce him and marry a man named Chris Lavery (Dick Simmons
Richard Simmons (actor)
Richard Simmons , also known as Dick Simmons, was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Simmons started his film acting career in 1937...
). Fromsett, however, had recently seen Lavery in neighboring Bay City. It quickly becomes obvious to Marlowe that Fromsett wants her boss for herself (for his money as she later admits).
When Marlowe goes to see Lavery, the Southerner professes to be unaware of any trip to Mexico. Lavery then sucker punches the detective. Marlowe wakes up in jail, where he is questioned by Captain Kane (Tom Tully
Tom Tully
Tom Tully was an American actor.-Biography:Born in Durango, Colorado, Thomas Kane Tulley served in the United States Navy, was a private pilot and worked as junior reporter for the Denver Post before going into acting because he felt the pay was better. Tully started out on stage before eventually...
) and a very belligerent Lieutenant DeGarmot (Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
). When Marlowe refuses to divulge anything about his case, Kane warns him not to cause trouble in his district and releases him.
Marlowe learns that the body of a woman has been recovered from a lake owned by Kingsby, and Kingsby's caretaker there charged with the murder of his wife Muriel. Fromsett suspects that Chrystal is the real killer, as she and Muriel hated each other. Little Fawn Lake was also where Chrystal was last seen. Marlowe investigates and reports to Fromsett that Muriel was an alias for a woman named Mildred Havelend, and that she was hiding from a tough cop - whose description fits DeGarmot.
Marlowe goes to call on Lavery again. Inside the unlocked house, he instead encounters Lavery's landlady, Mrs. Falbrook, holding a gun she claims to have just found. Upstairs, he finds Lavery dead, shot several times in the shower. He also finds a handkerchief with the monogram "A F".
Before calling the police, he interrupts a Christmas party at the publishing house to confront Fromsett. In private, she denies killing Lavery. Kingsby comes in and, after learning that Fromsett hired Marlowe to find Chrystal, tells her theirs will be strictly a business relationship from now on. A furious Fromsett fires the private eye. Marlowe immediately gets another job; Kingsby hires him to find his wife.
Marlowe then informs the police of Laverty's death. At the scene, he suggests that Muriel was hiding from DeGarmot. The two men scuffle, before Kane separates them and sends Marlowe on his way.
Marlowe obtains more information on Muriel from a newspaper contact. It turns out that Muriel had been a suspect in the suspicious death of her previous employer's wife. The investigating detective, DeGarmot, ruled it a suicide, but the victim's parents strongly disagreed.
When Marlowe goes to question them, he finds they have been intimidated into keeping silent. Afterwards, he is driven off the road by DeGarmot. Regaining consciousness after the crash, he manages to get to a telephone and call Fromsett for help. She takes him back to her apartment, where she tells him that they have much in common and that she has fallen in love with him.
Kingsby shows up and informs Marlowe he has received a telegram from his wife, asking for money. Marlowe agrees to drop it off, as Kingsby is being followed by police detectives. Placing his life in Fromsett's hands, he instructs her to have the police follow him after ten minutes, following a trail of rice he will leave behind.
The woman Marlowe meets turns out to be Mrs. Falbrook / Muriel / Mildred Havelend. She is responsible for all of the murders (including Chrystal, the lady in the lake). DeGarmot had fallen in love with her and helped cover up the first, but she ran out on him. DeGarmot tracks them down (having overheard Fromsett speaking to Captain Kane). He plans to kill them both and stage it to look like they shot each other. DeGarmot murders Mildred, but Kane gets there just in time to gun down the crooked cop. Marlowe and Fromsett leave for New York together to start a life together.
Cast
- Robert MontgomeryRobert Montgomery (actor)Robert Montgomery was an American actor and director.- Early life :Montgomery was born Henry Montgomery, Jr. in Beacon, New York, then known as "Fishkill Landing", the son of Mary Weed and Henry Montgomery, Sr. His early childhood was one of privilege, since his father was president of the New...
as Philip Marlowe - Audrey TotterAudrey TotterAudrey Mary Totter is an American actress and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract star of Austrian-Slovene and Swedish descent...
as Adrienne Fromsett - Lloyd NolanLloyd NolanLloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
as Lt. DeGarmot - Tom TullyTom TullyTom Tully was an American actor.-Biography:Born in Durango, Colorado, Thomas Kane Tulley served in the United States Navy, was a private pilot and worked as junior reporter for the Denver Post before going into acting because he felt the pay was better. Tully started out on stage before eventually...
as Police Captain Fergus K. Kane - Leon AmesLeon Ames (actor)Leon Ames was an American film and television actor. He is best remembered for playing fatherly figures in such films as Meet Me in St. Louis , as Judy Garland's father, and in Little Women ....
as Derace Kingsby - Jayne MeadowsJayne Meadows-Early life:Jayne Meadows was born as Jayne Cotter in Wu-ch'ang, in Heilongjiang, China, to Episcopal missionary parents, the Rev. Francis James Meadows Cotter and his wife, the former Ida Miller Taylor, who had married in 1915. Meadows is the older sister of the late actress Audrey Meadows. She...
as Mildred Havelend - Richard SimmonsRichard Simmons (actor)Richard Simmons , also known as Dick Simmons, was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Simmons started his film acting career in 1937...
as Chris Lavery - Morris AnkrumMorris AnkrumMorris Ankrum was an American radio, television and film character actor.-Early life:Born Morris Nussbaum in Danville, Illinois, Ankrum originally began a career in academics. After graduating from USC with a law degree, he went on to an associate professorship in economics at the University of...
as Eugene Grayson - Lila LeedsLila Leeds-Early life and career:Born Lila Lee Wilkinson in Iola, Kansas, Leeds ran away from home as a teen. She worked as a dancer in St. Louis before moving to Los Angeles. While working as a hatcheck girl at Ciro's, she met and married actor, composer, singer and conductor Jack Little. The marriage was...
as Receptionist - William RobertsWilliam Roberts-People:* William Roberts , Anglican bishop* Sir William Roberts , British Member of Parliament and father of Sir William Roberts, 1st Baronet...
as Artist - Kathleen LockhartKathleen LockhartKathleen Lockhart was an English-born stage actress.She was born Kathleen Arthur in Southsea, Hampshire in England. An actress and musician, Kathleen got her start on the stage in England and then immigrated to the United States in 1924, upon her marriage to Canadian-born actor Gene Lockhart...
as Mrs. Grayson - Ellay Mort as Chrystal Kingsby. This is an inside joke. Chrystal is never seen in the film. The name sounds like the French sentence "elle est morte", which means "she is dead".
Critical reaction
The New York Times film critic wrote, "In making the camera an active participant, rather than an off-side reporter, Mr. Montgomery has, however, failed to exploit the full possibilities suggested by this unusual technique. For after a few minutes of seeing a hand reaching toward a door knob, or lighting a cigarette or lifting a glass, or a door moving toward you as though it might come right out of the screen the novelty begins to wear thin."Radio adaptation
Lux Radio TheaterLux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on February 9, 1948 with Montgomery and Totter reprising their roles.
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, as part of its Classic Chandler series, broadcast on February 12, 2011, a 90 minute production of Lady in the Lake, starring Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens is an English stage, television and film actor who has appeared in films in both Hollywood and Bollywood. He is best known for playing megavillain Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day , Edward Fairfax Rochester in the BBC television adaptation of Jane Eyre and Philip...
.
External links
- Lady in the Lake trailer at You Tube