The Big Sleep (film)

The Big Sleep is a classic film based on the novel by Raymond Chandler, directed and produced by Howard Hawks, and starring Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe, a private detective. It also starred Lauren Bacall, who was married to Bogart by the time this film was released. Several other actors with smaller roles were: Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, Regis Toomey, and Elisha Cook Jr.

I have a hard time reviewing a film that I have watched many, many times. I have always liked films of this era and Bogart and Bacall are among my favorite actors, so I always get a lot of pleasure out of watching this movie. The story is set in Los Angeles, and there is murder, blackmail, sex, homosexuality, drugs, and pornography.

Philip Marlowe is working for a wealthy man, General Sternwood, with two beautiful daughters, and he can buy just about anything he wants. Most of the people in the story are corrupt. It is the story of a moral man working in a corrupt society.

The plot of the movie is just as complex as the plot of the book. Maybe more complex. But like the book, the movie is more about the characters and the setting, and doesn't have to make a lot of sense.  A lot of the dialogue sounds like it is straight out of the book.  The plot of the movie sticks fairly close to the plot of the book, but some characters are different. The oldest daughter of General Sternwood is played by Lauren Bacall, and she has a much greater role in the movie. Other than that, I won't go into details. If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, I don't want to spoil it for you.

This film was completed in 1944 but not released until 1946. The release of the film was initially delayed because the war was ending and Warner Brothers wanted to get films related to the war out before the end of the war. There were also concerns related to the scenes shot with Lauren Bacall in the early version. Since the film had been delayed already, her agent lobbied for Howard Hawks to re-shoot some scenes to enhance her role.

The DVD version I watched had both the 1946 theatrical version of film and the original pre-release version. I have not watched the original version, and don't know if I want to. The disc also includes a short documentary with Robert Gitt of UCLA, who provided the information on the differences between the two versions of the movie, along with other background on the movie.

The screenwriters for the film are William Faulkner, Jules Furthman, and Leigh Brackett. William Faulkner is very well known for his novels and short stories and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Jules Furthman wrote screenplays for many, many other films, including  Mutiny on the Bounty, Only Angels Have Wings, To Have and Have Not, and Rio Bravo. But the most interesting story is that Howard Hawks hired Leigh Brackett based on the dialogue in her first novel, No Good from a Corpse, and, based on her name, he thought she was a man. Leigh Brackett is well known for writing many science fiction novels and short stories, and wrote a few other mystery novels. In the late 50s and early 60s, she wrote screenplays for several other Howard Hawks films. Robert Altman also hired her to write the screenplay for The Long Goodbye (1973), based on another Raymond Chandler book.

This is the third movie I have watched and reported on for the Book to Movie Challenge 2013, hosted by Doing Dewey.