The first film directed by Hollywood star Robert Montgomery was this highly unusual, ahead-of-its-time adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s eponymous detective thriller. Pushing to a radical extreme film noir’s interest in heightened states of subjectivity, The Lady in the Lake is told entirely from a “first person” camera perspective that adopts and steadily holds the point of view of Philip Marlowe, “played” by Montgomery. Frequently mentioned for its technical innovation, The Lady in the Lake is rarely recognized for its taut and richly suspenseful storytelling, which uses Montgomery’s agile camera to carefully exploit the darker shadows of offscreen space.