AllMovie

A completely original, knockout noir from director/star Robert Montgomery, Lady in the Lake features the quick, witty dialogue of the Raymond Chandler book, plenty of interesting camera angles (all from the point of view of the Phillip Marlowe character played by Montgomery), and many excellent supporting roles. Book editor Adrienne Fromsett (Audrey Totter) seems in the beginning of the film to be the obvious femme fatale. She does some serious acrobatics with her eyebrows whenever the camera focuses in close on her which it does a lot. Also, among the film's excellent cast are Tom Tully as the Bay City (Santa Monica) police captain who has a couple of great comical scenes speaking to his family on the phone, tough guy cop Lloyd Nelson who has it in for Marlowe, Leon Ames who plays Fromsett's anxious, millionaire boss and Richard Simmons as Chris Lavery, a creepy character who gets knocked off early in the film. Montgomery's use of the camera's point of view is clever and never a bothersome gimmick. It's quite experimental for a 1946 film as Montgomery films a car chase, a kiss, a knuckle sandwich, waking up in jail and crawling to a phone booth all from Marlowe's perspective.