FAQ for
The Big Sleep (1946) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The Big Sleep can be found here.

Yes. The Big Sleep (1939) is a pulp crime novel written by American-born author, Raymond Chandler. It is the first novel to feature Chandler's famous detective, Philip Marlowe.

The big sleep is death. In the closing passage of the novel, Marlowe reflects on death and asks himself: "What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that ..."

Those who have both seen the movie and read the book say that the movie was confusing to them. Certain things were changed for the movie. For example, the book has several scenes with nudity, which were changed/removed for the film. In the book, Geiger and Carol are homosexual lovers. This is not mentioned in the movie. Vivian is estranged from husband Rusty Regan in the book, and he is the one who had supposedly ran off with Mars' wife. In the movie, this character is broken into two separate individuals. Rutledge is the estranged husband, and Regan (now with the first name Sean) is the fellow that was friendly with General Sternwood and then suddenly disappeared. It is not clear what the purpose of this character split is. Although Marlowe and Vivian do have some romantic interaction in the book, they are not an "item" at all. However the film makes them a romantic couple in order to "Hollywoodize" the story. Finally, the film ends with a verbal explanation of who actually killed Regan. The book concludes with a bizarre scene involving Marlowe giving Carmen shooting lessons and then Marlowe telling Vivian to send her sister off.

Neither the movie nor the book tells. It's rumored that even author Raymond Chandler had no idea when that question was put to him by the screenwriters. Those who have seen the movie and/or read the book are split over it being (1) Brody, (2) Lundgren, or (3) the chauffeur killing himself.

Even though the movie was finished by January 1945 the movie was not shown in theatres before August 1946. One of the reasons were extensive re-shoots with Bogart and Bacall, forced by Bacall's agent Charles K. Feldman in order to save her career after her bad performance in Confidential Agent. Therefore several scenes of The Big Sleep were replaced by new ones focusing on Bogart and Bacall in order to profit from their on-screen chemistry and the underlying sexual tension of their relationship. Because of this several actors were cut out of the movie or got replaced by other for the re-shoots. Even though there's no big difference in the running time, seven of the twelve reels the movie exists of were altered, plot elements were left out and so on. A detailed comparison between both versions with pictures can be found here.