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Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames ... see more see more... , Jayne Meadows , Morris Ankrum , Lila Leeds , William Roberts , Kathleen Lockhart , Eddie Acuff , Charles Bradstreet , Wheaton Chambers , Frank Dae , John Webb Dillon , Ralph Dunn , Budd Fine , John Gallaudet , Sherry Hall , Cy Kendall , George Magrill , Bert Moorhouse , William O'Leary , Frank Orth , Ellen Ross , Fred Santley , Fred E. Sherman , Laura Treadwell , Robert B. Williams , David Cavendish , Ann Lawrence , Sandra Morgan , Robert Spencer , Roger Cole , Thomas Murray , William McKeever Riley , Nina Ross , Florence Stephens , George Travell , Kay Wiley , Billy Newell , James Nolan , Dick Simmons , Jack Davis

Robert Montgomery is the director and star of the film noir mystery Lady in the Lake, adapted for the screen by source novelist Raymond Chandler. Montgomery plays detective Philip Marlowe, a private e... read more read more...ye who just wants to publish his own crime stories. Kingsby Publications editor Adrienne Fromsett (Audrey Totter) meets with Marlowe, but offers him a job as a detective instead of a writer. She wants him to find the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby (Leon Ames). (Adrienne wants them to proceed with their divorce so she can marry Kingsby herself.) Marlowe accepts the job and goes looking for clues at the home of the wife's sometime lover, Chris Lavery (Dick Simmons). When Marlowe gets knocked out and picked up for drunk driving, he decides to drop the case. He is drawn back in, however, when Adrienne suggests that Kingsby's wife is responsible for the murder of a mysterious lady in the lake. Lloyd Nolan and Tom Tully play two police detectives also on the case. Lady in the Lake is remembered as being filmed with a subjective camera -- almost entirely from Marlowe's point of view -- and subsequently hyped by an MGM ad campaign. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

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31% want to see it

1,157 ratings

Critics

60% liked it

10 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 43 min.

Directed by: Robert Montgomery

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DVD Release Date: July 18, 2006

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Flixster Reviews (100)

  • pier007
    June 8, 2010
    pier007
    Though the fist person point of view may be an annoying gimmick that slows down the plot, it's an interesting excercise with some sequences full of oppresive atmosphere and suspense, for instance when Marlowe discovers the body; also the car chase and the ending.
  • FilmFanatik
    April 2, 2010
    FilmFanatik
    This has some great stuff in it, but it's too mediocre to give it really high marks. The POV stuff can be a bit on the boring and uninteresting side, which is why I think it failed a bit for me.
  • jjnxn
    December 6, 2009
    jjnxn
    Tough little noir. The audience POV is a gimmick but not one that ruins the enjoyment of the film, actually what could have been dispensed with was when Montgomery shows up sporadically to provide info for the viewer which would have been better as a voice over. Totter is a great... read more noir heroine, pretty but with a hardness to her features and attitudes that make her perfect for the genre.
  • groaningbitch
    September 4, 2009
    groaningbitch
    "lady in the lake" is an amateurish noir by robert montgomery's gimmicky experiment of filmmaking with raymond chandler's novel by the same name. it utilizes the entire first-person perspective which is also applied in humprey bogart's "dark passage" which was also released aroun... read mored the same time in 1947. but montgomery's trial is thorough becuz montgomery's philip marlowe is basically just a narrator, a void awaiting to be filled by the audience.

    first of all, it takes a great deal of imagination as well as some enduring composure as a constant reader to visualize oneself in the position of philip marlowe as you're reading chandler's detective novels with his die-hard ace marlowe. as an enthusiastic reader of chandler's novels, i've found montgomery's primitive direction borders on my perception of the plots as i leaf one page after another. obviously, i cannot help but wonder whether montgomery's choice of such kind of directing is due to his limited craftmanship as a director since he cannot think any other way to present a movie?

    second of all, the process of film-viewing is a highly passive involvement with the original texts since the filmakers have filled in the pages with their own envisioning of the story. as a viewer, you're detached in a position to judge whether the fimmaker's presentation is marvellously creative or not with a smugly ignorant condescendence even you've not got in touch with the texts beforehand. but on the contrary, reading is an active experience or commitment to devote your absolute attention into the story, and you're more left alone with your own imaginations on the characters, backset and the stream of consciousness kind of soliloquy as the character's self-revelation...you concede into the author's viewpoint at the moment you open the book or you wouldn't dedicate your time and efforts on consuming all the materials..when you're reading, you're fabricating a movie made on your own with your mind in absolute privacy....

    so "lady in the lake" is merely a passable movie-piece since the director cannot offer you anything more than a whirling camera with some bizarre hand gestures. but somehow it simulates your inward state as you read the original books while imagining yourself as marlowe and see things in his angle...meanwhile it also lacks a sort of deepening refinement of characters' dimensions which the book usually renders by monologues..in the case, it proves that audrey totter is indeed a good actress who could pull off an acting job by playing opposite to an abscent leading man, shedding tears to a lifeless machine without the helpful eye-contact in the love scenes.
  • mjgildea
    October 28, 2007
    mjgildea
    I spent the first 45 minutes annoyed by the crabbiness with which Robert Montgomery played Phillip Marlowe, but I eventually warmed up to Lady in the Lake. The whole 1st person POV was really gimmicky kind of annoying for a little while (especially with the crappy editing between... read more shots) but you eventually go numb to it. The segues with Marlowe in his office bugged me and tipped me off to the fact that Montgomery was clueless in the director's chair. As with any Chandler, the dialogue's as great as the story is. Audrey Totter turns in a performance that's sultry as all hell when she's not giving the stink eye or overly dramatic expressions. If you ever check it out you've got to stick with it and not dismiss it before the first act is up. The ending's worth it.
  • patrickdol
    January 17, 2009
    patrickdol
    A film that's one big gimmick, but fun to sit through once, even if it does take you out of the film.
    Think Half-Life set in a Film-noir setting, yet it's mostly those parts where people talk to you and you have nothing to shoot.
  • jam233
    March 9, 2010
    jam233
    85/100. Underrated classic, very innovative and exciting. It uses the very unique technique of using the camera as the eyes of detective Marlowe in this fine adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel. Robert Montgomery directed it and did a wonderfully imaginative job. Excellent s... read moreupport from Audrey Totter and Audrey Meadows. Excellent cinematography.
  • wilmothoudini
    March 4, 2009
    wilmothoudini
    Awkward and stiff in parts. First person camera work is bizarre and the fixation on Christmas is even more bizarre, But that's why I love it. Also 50% of the time the first person camera is focused on Audrey Totter, and while her eyes are downright crazy in this movie, I can w... read moreatch her all day. Extremely biased review.
  • gavinrrsmith
    September 6, 2007
    gavinrrsmith
    If ever there were a movie that cried out for a remake, this is it. Not because the film is bad, exactly--it's rather frustratingly average--but because the central concept is great but is failed by the available technology. Director and star Robert Montgomery tries to tell us th... read moree tale of Philip Marlowe's bizarre case by framing the film entirely through Marlowe's point-of-view, as if we the audience are seeing through Marlowe's eyes. This is indeed a delightful concept, but sadly a camera on a track and a crane is not believable as a human stand-in and the many "hidden" cuts to allow the camera to be repositioned are way too obvious. Also, while the many scenes showing Marlowe in mirrors are a nice touch, they are all clearly at the wrong angle. Today's steadicams would have been a Godsend to the filmmakers. The film is also hampered by the apparent belief that the audience just wouldn't "get it," as multiple times we cut to Marlowe in his office facing us in order to explain to us something that is happening. This wouldn't be so bad except the second time it's followed by the scene where we actually see everything happen that he was just explaining to us! It's certainly an interesting film to look at, and historically important for its inventive use of the POV shot, but it really just plays out like all those Nancy Drew computer games, but without the ability to interact with any of it.
  • striderdemme
    June 29, 2007
    striderdemme
    Extra props for filming it (almost entirely) in the first-person. This technique was well done for it's time, but the story didn't pull me in.

View All Lady in the Lake Reviews

Critic Reviews

Paul Brenner
June 28, 2009
Paul Brenner, Filmcritic.com

completely misinterprets the joys of film noir Full Review

John J. Puccio
July 15, 2006
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

...the movie is different, and one can hardly say that Lady in the Lake is anything less than entertaining for most of its running time. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
May 14, 2004
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Chandler's story, which might be his finest, somehow comes through this gimmicky filmmaking experiment intact enough though much scathed. Full Review

Ken Hanke
December 29, 2002
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Flawed but brilliant experiment by Montgomery using a subjective camera. Extraordinary musical track, too.

Bob Bloom
August 15, 2002
Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

The subjective camera gimmick wears thin after a while. Montgomery is too light for Marlowe.

Rob Vaux
August 13, 2002
Rob Vaux, Flipside Movie Emporium

A daring experiment that utterly, utterly failed.

March 26, 2009
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

August 8, 2006
New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Dave Kehr
January 1, 2000
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Click to read the article Full Review

Emanuel Levy
June 13, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

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