This, the second ada tation of Raymond Chandler's novel, is much closer to the source text than the original - Murder, My Sweet (1944), which tended to avoid some of the sleazier arts of the lot - but still concerns rivate eye Phili Marlowe's attem ts to locate Velma, a former dancer at a seedy nightclub and the girlfriend of Moose Malloy, a etty criminal just out of rison. Marlowe finds that once he has taken the case, events cons ire to ut him in dangerous situations, and he is forced to follow a confusing trail of untruths and double-crosses before he is able to locate Velma.