The Big Sleep (1946)

Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

William Faulkner (screenplay), Leigh Brackett (screenplay),

Stars:

Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely

Top 250 #171 | 1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Humphrey Bogart	...	Philip Marlowe
Lauren Bacall	...	Vivian Rutledge
John Ridgely	...	Eddie Mars
Martha Vickers	...	Carmen Sternwood
Dorothy Malone	...	Acme Book Shop Proprietress
Peggy Knudsen	...	Mona Mars
Regis Toomey	...	Chief Inspector Bernie Ohls
Charles Waldron	...	General Sternwood
Charles D. Brown	...	Norris the Butler
Bob Steele	...	Lash Canino
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Harry Jones
Louis Jean Heydt	...	Joe Brody
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pat Clark	...	Mona Mars (scenes deleted)
James Flavin	...	Capt. Cronjager (scenes deleted)
Thomas E. Jackson	...	District Attorney White (scenes deleted)

Storyline

Summoned by the dying General Sternwood, Philip Marlowe is asked to deal with several problems that are troubling his family. Marlowe finds that each problem centers about the disappearance of Sternwood's favoured employee who has left with a mobster's wife. Each of the problems becomes a cover for something else as Marlowe probes.

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Plot Keywords:

murder | philip marlowe | general | blackmail | private detective | 

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Taglines:

The picture they were born for!

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Genres:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 August 1946 (USA)

Also Known As:

Le grand sommeil

Filming Locations:

New York Street, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min 116 min (pre-release)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Due to Humphrey Bogart's affair with co-star Lauren Bacall, his marital problems escalated during filming, and his drinking often resulted in his being unable to work. Three months after the film was finished, Bacall and Bogart were married.

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Goofs

When Bogart is in the house with the beaded curtain, the curtain is always completely still even after a very short time of passing through it. The first time Bogart goes into the bedroom and out again, you can see the curtain continue to move for a certain duration. His movements past the curtain should have them moving each time he comes back out of the bedroom because that duration is less than the first time.

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Quotes

Taxi Driver: If you can use me again sometime, call this number.
Philip Marlowe: Day and night?
Taxi Driver: Uh, night's better. I work during the day.

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Connections

Referenced in German Grusel - Die Edgar Wallace-Serie (2011)

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Soundtracks

"I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan"
(uncredited)
Music by Arthur Schwartz
Played when Vivian Rutledge pays off Marlowe over drinks

User Reviews

Classic Noir

Read all of my reviews at www.midnitcafe.blogspot.com This classic film noir has very few of techniques generally associated with noir. It contains no skewed camera angles; and though it is darkly lit, it is not overcome with murky, obscuring shadows. The hero is not down-and-out, poor, or desperate. There is no retrospective narration, or flashbacks. Yet, the Big Sleep is widely considered to be one of the very best of this genre. It is a cynical, perverse, murderous world filled with loads of confusing action and unknown motives. It is, in fact, one of the great films of one of the screens greatest actors (for my personal top 10 actors list, click here), and most talented directors.

It was directed by Howard Hawks fresh off of the successful pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Becall in To Have and Have Not. The two star here again and it is easy to see why they made another two films together. Based on a Raymond Chandler novel of the same name, many people complain that this film is incomprehensible. Somewhat famously it is reported that Bogart and Hawks, after arguing over who killed one of the characters, called up Chandler to get the correct answer. Chandler didn't have the slightest idea, for the novel is rather vague on this point. It's true that both the novel and film leave many plot points as to who did what to whom more than unclear, but there is so much style in both that it's hard to make a convincing argument against them.

A good deal of the confusion within the film comes from the production codes in effect at the time it was produced. Chandler's novel deals with murder, homosexuality, heterosexuality, and pornography. At the time, these things were deemed unfit to show on a movie screen and so Hawks had to hint at them using various subtle methods. For instance, when Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers) is found by detective Phillip Marlow (Bogart) in the novel she is completely nude and sitting posed for a hidden camera. Since pornography is explicitly against code, in the movie she is dressed in a silky, Japanese gown. There is still a hidden camera, and its missing film becomes a catalyst for much of the action in the film. We must infer from the exotic nature of the gown that there was more than just pictures of a woman in a gown going on. There are many similar instances in the film like this. For an audience member who has not read the book, they must pay close attention to the subtext, or the film will seem baffling.

Personally, I am very much a fan of the book, and all of Chandler's work. While I appreciate that some of the finer plot points are a bit vague in this film, I also understand that the film succeeds not in the details of the story, but in a sinister sense of style. The film oozes with a dark, disquieting atmosphere. Nearly everyone Marlowe meets is hiding something, and is of less than upstanding moral character. Hawks does a great job of keeping nearly every scene in the dark or in the rain, or both. There are so many characters coming in and out of the shadows and with their own shady character that it is difficult to keep up.

Bogart, of course, does a marvelous job as Marlowe. He seems to understand a lot more information than the audience is ever given. Chandler wrote Marlowe as a detective who sticks by his own set up morals, remaining somewhat of a noble creature trying to stay afloat amongst the muck and sewers of the city. Lauren Bacall does a very good job portraying Vivian Sternwood Rutledge, in a role that is much different than the one in the book. Like many films from this era, they create a romance that wasn't really in the source material. I don't mind though, because Bogart and Bacall really sizzle.

What can I say that hasn't been said before? This is really classic noir at its best. It's got Bogart and Bacall. It was directed by Howard Hawks, written by William Faulkner from a novel by Raymond Chandler. What more could a lover of classic cinema want? More reviews at www.midnitcafe.blogspot.com