The Big Sleep (1978)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Michael Winner

Writers:

Raymond Chandler (novel)
Michael Winner (writer)

Release Date:

10 May 1978 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Some days business is good - and some days it's murder!

Plot:

Set in England, rather than California, the story follows Raymond Chandler's book fairly closely otherwise...

Plot Keywords:

Investigation | Blackmail | Bookstore | Cynical | Nudity

Cast

Robert Mitchum	...	Philip Marlowe
Sarah Miles	...	Charlotte Sternwood
Richard Boone	...	Lash Canino
Candy Clark	...	Camilla Sternwood
Joan Collins	...	Agnes Lozelle
Edward Fox	...	Joe Brody
John Mills	...	Inspector Jim Carson
James Stewart	...	General Sternwood
Oliver Reed	...	Eddie Mars
Harry Andrews	...	Norris
Colin Blakely	...	Harry Jones
Richard Todd	...	Commander Barker
Diana Quick	...	Mona Grant
James Donald	...	Inspector Gregory
John Justin	...	Arthur Geiger

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Singapore:M18 | Germany:16 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Australia:M | France:U | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Avery Hill Park and Winter Gardens, Avery Hill Park, Bexley Road, Greenwich, London, England, UK

Company:

Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Trivia:

James Stewart had difficulty saying his lines on time due to hearing and memory problems. Some of the cast were shocked by his aged appearance. Robert Mitchum recalled, "The picture was all about corpses, but Jimmy looked deader than any of them."

Quotes:

Charlotte Sternwood: [when Marlowe declines to blackmail her] Wha-? You don't want money?
Philip Marlowe: Oh sure. All I itch for is money. I'm so greedy that for fifty pounds a day plus expenses on the day I work, I risk my future, the hatred of the cops, of Eddie Mars and his pals, I dodge bullets and put up with slaps and say "Thank you very much. If you have any further trouble please call me: I'll just put my card here on the table." I do all that for a few pounds...

Movie Connections:

Follows Farewell, My Lovely (1975)

Soundtrack:

Won't Somebody Dance With Me

Big Mistake, The (1978)

Chandler's novel is pushed ahead by about 40 years. His Philip Marlowe is aged about 30 years. The location is changed by the combined breadth of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean. It should come as no surprise that this doesn't work at all. The scandal from which Marlowe shields the old man was so much more significant in the period in which the book was set. (Who, for example, really would be heart-broken or even especially shocked to learn in 1978 that his daughter had been photographed in the nude? Granted, that the secrets get darker, but the point is that so much is diluted.) Mitchum is a very, very fine actor, and when he was, say, 30 to 40 years old he would have been a good choice to play Marlowe; but an important aspect of Marlowe is exactly that he is so weary of spirit while still a relatively young man; we expect the old to feel old. And...a film noir in the English country-side? I don't think so!