Robert Montgomery stars in and directs this snappy adaptation of Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled detective mystery. Montgomery portrays Marlowe, private eye. As director, he's also the film's private eyes, using a subjective camera presenting the action from Marlowe's point of view. What Marlowe sees, we see. When he gets slugged, we slip into blackness. The case begins when Marlowe sets out to find the missing wife of a publishing magnate. Several smack-arounds, one dead gigolo, a few angry cops, a booze-soaked frame-up and one dame in the lake later, Marlowe finds the killer and finds he's looking at the business end of a gun.