The Big Sleep (1946)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Howard Hawks

Writers:

William Faulkner (screenplay) &
Leigh Brackett (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

31 August 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

The type of man she hated . . . was the type she wanted !

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | General | Private Eye | Blackmail | Private Detective

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Philip Marlowe
Lauren Bacall	...	Vivian Sternwood Rutledge
John Ridgely	...	Eddie Mars
Martha Vickers	...	Carmen Sternwood
Dorothy Malone	...	Acme Bookstore proprietress
Peggy Knudsen	...	Mona Mars
Regis Toomey	...	Chief Insp. Bernie Ohls (District Attorney's Office)
Charles Waldron	...	Gen. Sternwood
Charles D. Brown	...	Norris (Sternwood's 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	...	Dist. Atty. White (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Le grand sommeil (Belgium: French title) (France) [fr]
Tote schlafen fest (Austria) (Germany) [de]
À Beira do Abismo (Portugal) [pt]
Al borde del abismo (Argentina) [es]
Birlesen kalpler (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
De diepe slaap (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Den djupa sömnen (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Der tiefe Schlaf (Austria) (TV title) [de]
El gran sueño (Mexico) [es]
El sueño eterno (Spain) [es]
Hluboký spánek (Czech Republic) (TV title) [cs]
Il grande sonno (Italy) [it]
La gran dormida (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Pathos kai aima (Greece) [el]
Sternwood mysteriet (Denmark) [da]
Syvä uni (Finland) [fi]
Utpressning (Sweden) [sv]
Veliki san (Serbia) [sr]
Wielki sen (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

114 min | 116 min (pre-release version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | New Zealand:PG | Sweden:(Banned) (original rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Australia:PG (alternate rating) | Canada:14A (video rating) | Chile:18 | Finland:(Banned) (1947-1949) | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 (re-rating) (1961) | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #10625) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

References are made by both sisters about Marlowe's height at the beginning of the film. Back then it was film convention for the male lead to be taller than the female and Humphrey Bogart was shorter than both leading actresses, a problem corrected on screen through giving Bogart platform shoes as well as trick photography.

Goofs:

Continuity: 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.

Quotes:

Vivian: How did you find her?
Marlowe: I didn't find her.
Vivian: Well then how did you-...
Marlowe: I haven't been here, you haven't seen me, and she hasn't been out of the house all evening.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Shadows of Suspense (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine

Just Ignore That Discombobulated Plot

Many fans of this classic film are drawn to it because of Bogie and Bacall, who do indeed make a deft acting duo. Here, Bogie plays Philip Marlowe, the tough talking, street savvy PI, who has his roots in the crime novels of writer Raymond Chandler. Bacall plays Vivian Sternwood, the adult daughter of a wealthy man. Vivian is just as tough and cagey as Marlowe. And she has a younger sister named Carmen, who seems to have fallen in with a bad crowd. It's up to Marlowe to investigate, and to save the Sternwood family from financial ruin. "The Big Sleep" is a story of blackmail, murder, multiple motives, lies, and all manner of general mayhem.

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are certainly persuasive in their roles. I also like the script's snappy dialogue. For example, in a conversation with General Sternwood, Marlowe responds: "Hmm". Sternwood follows up: "What does that mean?" To which Marlowe fires back: "It means, hmm". Marvelous.

But the film's plot is an incoherent mess. It is hard to follow, disjointed, and has obvious lapses. Further, secondary characters (Geiger, Brody, Mars, et.al.), and their interrelationships, are poorly defined. To some extent that vagueness and lack of precision are fairly common in 1940's pulp detective stories.

The best approach to "The Big Sleep" is to engulf the relationship between Marlowe and Vivian, marvel at the acting of Bogie and Bacall, enjoy the witty dialogue, and ignore the discombobulated plot.