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 | Private Detective | Blackmail

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Philip Marlowe
Lauren Bacall	...	Vivian Rutledge
John Ridgely	...	Eddie Mars
Martha Vickers	...	Carmen Sternwood
Dorothy Malone	...	Acme Bookstore 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)

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:

Rumors that Andy Williams dubbed Lauren Bacall's singing voice are untrue. Both director Howard Hawks and Bacall confirm that she did her own singing.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the station wagon pulls out of the alley behind Giegers book store, the crates extend past the car body and are on the tail gate. When the station wagon pulls up to the Randall Arms and pulls into the alley, the crates are now fully inside the body of the car.

Quotes:

Philip Marlowe: She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Yesterday Was a Lie (2008)

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.