Mrs. Rutledge: "I don't like your manners!"
Philip Marlowe: "I don't like them either. I grieve over them long winter nights."

The Big Sleep is a stylish, atmospheric crime thriller that confirmed Humphrey Bogart as the king of film noir. Following on to his earlier success in John Huston‘s The Maltese Falcon - the film that established the genre - Bogart again essayed a hard-boiled detective, this time for director Howard Hawks using a story by pulp novelist Raymond Chandler.

Humphrey Bogart plays Philip Marlowe, a Los Angeles private dick who is hired by an aristocratic gentleman to find why his daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers) owes $5,000 to a shady bookseller. General Sternwood (Charles Waldron), paying the price for a misspent life, is terminally ill and must spend his remaining days wheelchair-bound in a hothouse. Philip Marlowe, sweating bullets, quaffs straight brandy like it was iced tea as he hears the general’s tale of woe. He agrees to take the case and soon the bodies begin to pile up, but not before he meets the general’s two daughters, Carmen, in a stunning entrance, and Mrs. Rutledge (Lauren Bacall) in an equally memorable but more subdued entry…

Film noir is about the destruction, not the redemption, of the characters and is usually more concerned with style over substance. The Big Sleep is no exception to the rule. The plot is unbelievably convoluted, with dead bodies turning up everywhere; a few added by Bogie himself, but the look and feel is right, and that’s the important part. The Big Sleep is probably the most stylish film noir ever made. Camera and lighting by Syd Hickox is superb with lots of shadows while set design and art direction give the illusion of nighttime in LA. Music by Max Steiner is world class.

Big star power is afforded by heavy hitter Humphrey Bogart, who could play almost any part well. Bogart excels in delivering the snappy dialog provided by the screenwriters and makes it look easy. A 19 or 20 year-old Lauren Bacall is Bogart’s foil and lots of snappy (and racy) rejoinders spark their frequent conversations. This exchange is a classic of the excellent dialog:

[They are speaking about horse racing]
Bogart: “… you don’t like to be rated yourself…”
Bacall: “I’ve never met anybody who could do it, any suggestions?”
Bogart: “…You’ve got a touch of class but I don’t know how far you’d go.”
Bacall: “…It all depends on who’s in the saddle.”

The double entendres fly thick and fast in the delicious script adapted by no less than William Faulkner with able assistance from Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthmann. In defense of the screenwriting, a lot of the darker themes in the original story could not be explored so they were only hinted at. Some of the hints that they managed to get by the censors include nymphomania, pornography, homosexuality, and drug addiction.

Howard Hawks who directed many great films in several genres like Scarface, Sergeant York, To Have and Have Not, Red River, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Rio Bravo produced and directed The Big Sleep. According to the DVD, which contains TWO different versions of the film, a pre-release version was screened in 1945, it was then held back for over a year due to the ending of World War II where Warner Brothers released all the in-process war pictures before they became stale.

During the hiatus, Lauren Bacall’s agent asked Jack Warner to beef up the part of Bacall whose early fame established in another Bogart/Hawks vehicle had been somewhat damped by her last picture. Howard Hawks agreed and sometime in 1945-46 Bogart (45) and Bacall (20) reshot several of their scenes. The final version of the film is the one that is familiar to viewers who have seen The Big Sleep either in the original theatrical release or on television. It is rumored that Martha Vickers’ younger sister part was trimmed as she had such screen presence that she upstaged the husky-voiced Bacall, who was receiving top billing. At any rate, it is very interesting to view both versions of the film, and now you can. The final release replaced about 18 minutes of the prerelease version. Either version is classic, with the earlier revealing a little more about the plot, but the final cut adds to the banter and was likely the right thing to do as it confirmed Bacall as a big star.

The supporting cast is superb with a knockout performance by Dorothy Malone as a bookseller who gives Bogart information and probably more during a rainy stakeout of the smut peddler‘s store. Watch for old favorites Elisha Cook, Jr., Bob Steele, and Regis Toomey.

The Warner Brothers DVD contains the prerelease and theatrical release versions of The Big Sleep. There is a short subject by UCLA historian Bob Gitt explaining the differences between the two versions. All in all a very worthwhile DVD.

For those who would like to see similar films, I recommend The Maltese Falcon The Third Man, Double Indemnity, and LA Confidential.

Thanks for reading!

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening