Faulkner's screenplay is NOT good. The movie is really not a lot like the novel. Now, that shouldn't be a knock, but the novel makes much more sense than this muddle of Hollywoodized caricatures of Chandler's tale.
The whole thing got cooked into this tongue-in-cheek Bogey/Bacall thing, because of the success of To Have and Have Not, and so they hyped up the Bogey Sex Appeal at the sacrifice of the story, which is about a lady who can't keep her clothes on when cameras are around, and whose husband is "missing".
**Analogy: Chandler's Big Sleep is to Filet Mignon, as Hawk's Big Sleep is to BK Broiler.**
I love Hawk's work in the antic comedy area, but between his hammy directing and Faulker's (give me another mint julep *hic* honey) flat, canned screenplay, this is just a Screen Giant Personality Fest.
It was cute in To Have and Have Not, but give me a freaking' break. Where's the life-and-death in this thing? Film Noir? The only thing "Noir" about this was that it was "Blanc-Noir".
Jim
The whole thing got cooked into this tongue-in-cheek Bogey/Bacall thing, because of the success of To Have and Have Not, and so they hyped up the Bogey Sex Appeal at the sacrifice of the story, which is about a lady who can't keep her clothes on when cameras are around, and whose husband is "missing".
**Analogy: Chandler's Big Sleep is to Filet Mignon, as Hawk's Big Sleep is to BK Broiler.**
I love Hawk's work in the antic comedy area, but between his hammy directing and Faulker's (give me another mint julep *hic* honey) flat, canned screenplay, this is just a Screen Giant Personality Fest.
It was cute in To Have and Have Not, but give me a freaking' break. Where's the life-and-death in this thing? Film Noir? The only thing "Noir" about this was that it was "Blanc-Noir".
Jim