Robert Montgomery's Lady in the Lake is a film noir tale told entirely from the subjective point of view of Philip Marlowe, a private eye who becomes embroiled in a murder mystery that by all intensive purposes he had no desire to be a part of in the first place. Just wanting to get his crime stories published, Lady In The Lake begins with Marlowe visiting Kingsby Publications with the intent of selling some of his most juicy tales. On his arrival, he is greeted by the Publications editor Adrienne, who offers Marlowe a job as a detective, essentially ignoring Marlowe's intentions as a writer. Adrienne explains that her bosses' wife has gone missing, and after some convincing, Marlowe agrees to take on the missing girl case. Robert Montgomery's Lady In The Lake has all the typical tropes one would expect from a film noir, featuring an interweaving story of murder, mystery, and intrigue, a potential femme fatale, police corruption, and a hard-boiled, no-nonsense main protagonist. Robert Montgomery stars and directs this film, and while the story itself isn't anything you haven't seen before, it's engaging enough, being severely aided by its unique, cinematic style. You see, Lady In The Lake is a completely subjective experience due to its use of first person point of view camera work, where the entire film is directly shown through the eyes of Detective Marlowe. While it's certainly fair to call this device a gimmick, Lady in the Water is well crafted, providing a few memorable sequences through its unique cinematography. One particular sequence that stood out is when Marlowe finds himself being tailed, a typical trope of the Noir genre, with this subjective camera creating an extra layer of tension that makes the sequence memorable. Taking place around Christmas, Robert Montgomery routinely juxtaposes the cheerful holiday with that of the murder mystery, oddly using the holiday of giving as a stark contrasting force to this tale of deception and murder. In this Noir the dialogue also plays a big part, with the screenplay providing the character of Philip Marlowe with scene-chewing dialogue, providing a few memorable lines, making it another one of the highlights of this film experiment. Robert Montgomery's Lady in the Lake is nowhere near a top level film noir, and while the subjective camera could be written off as a gimmick, I'd argue Montgomery crafts a unique experience that is worth seeking out.
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June 2023
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