Trailer
Plot summary
Phillip Marlowe is a Los Angeles private detective tired of low pay. He submits a murder story to Kingsby Publications and is invited to the publisher's offices, but the meeting is a ploy. Days before Christmas, editor Adrienne Fromsett hires him to track down her employer's wife, Chrystal Kingsby. A month earlier, Chrystal sends a telegram saying she is going to Mexico to divorce her husband and marry Chris Lavery. Fromsett says Lavery claims he has not seen Chrystal in two months, and the telegram looks fake. Marlowe visits Lavery, who denies knowing about any trip to Mexico.
Cast
- Ellay Mortas Crystal
Show all 20 cast
- David Cavendishas Party Guest (Uncredited)
- Roger Coleas Party Guest (Uncredited)
- Jack Davisas Policeman (Uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Lady in the Lake (1946)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- MGM's rewrite of Lady in the Lake by Steve Fisher shifted Raymond Chandler's story to the Christmas season and cut the lake scenes; Chandler objected and, after seeing the finished film, demanded his name be removed.
- To shoot the point-of-view walking shots, MGM photography head John Arnold built a camera dolly with four independent wheels that could pass through doors and climb stairs, with a seat for Robert Montgomery; for fight scenes, cinematographer Paul C. Vogel used a modified Eyemo camera in a shoulder harness.
- MGM objected to Robert Montgomery's first-person camera plan because it would keep him off screen, and insisted he film a prologue in which Marlowe speaks to the camera; the studio made the film in secrecy to protect the innovation.
- Robert Montgomery's use of point-of-view cinematography on Lady in the Lake was blamed for the end of his career at MGM.
- Robert Montgomery described making Lady in the Lake as eight years of arguing, and said nobody seems to want an actor to become a director.
- Lady in the Lake was unusual for having virtually no instrumental soundtrack, employing instead a wordless vocal chorus in place of the usual orchestral film score.
