August 23, 1946,
release date
Directed by Howard
Hawks
Screenplay by William
Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman
Based on the novel The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Music by
Max Steiner
Edited by
Christian Nyby
Cinematography
by Sidney Hickox
Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe
Lauren Bacall as Vivian Sternwood Rutledge
Martha Vickers as Carmen Sternwood
John Ridgely as Eddie Mars
Pat Clark as Mona Mars [1945 version
only]
Peggy Knudsen as Mona Mars [1946 version only]
Regis Toomey as Chief Inspector Bernie Ohls
Charles Waldron as General Sternwood
Charles D. Brown as Norris
Bob Steele as Lash Canino
Elisha Cook, Jr. as Harry Jones, the man tailing Philip Marlowe
Louis Jean Heydt as Joe Brody
Dorothy Malone as Acme Bookstore proprietor
Sonia Darrin as Agnes Lowzier, the salesgirl at A.J. Geiger bookstore
Ben Welden as Pete, Mars’s flunky
Tom Fadden as Sidney, Mars’s flunky
Trevor Bardette as Art Huck
Theordore Eltz as Arthur Gwynn Geiger
James Flavin as Captain Cronjager [1945 version only]
Thomas E. Jackson as District Attorney Wilde [1945 version only]
Dan Wallace as Carol Lundgren
Joseph Crehan as the medical
examiner
Joy Barlowe as the cab driver
Distributed
by Warner Bros.
Produced
by Warner Bros.
The Big Sleep has it all when it comes to film noir: Humphrey Bogart
in the lead playing a detective, sometimes wearing his rumpled trench coat;
murder; blackmail; dark and gloomy nights, which makes for perfect noir
production and lighting values; drug addiction; and pornography, which is mostly
implied in the era of Hollywood’s production code. And then there is the
romance between Phil Marlowe (Bogart) and Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall),
which also makes it a Bogie and Bacall film, of course. There’s no doubt Bogart and Bacall have a
commanding screen presence, although I thought this was more evident in their
first film, To Have and Have Not.
Bogart and
Bacall appeared in four films together, and The Big Sleep was their
second:
◊
To Have and Have Not (1944), loosely based on the novel by Ernest
Hemingway (Click here for my post about the film.)
◊
The Big Sleep (1946), based on the novel by Raymond
Chandler
◊
Dark Passage (1947), based on the novel by David Goodis
◊
Key Largo (1948), based on the play by Maxwell Anderson
All
four films are considered noir, and the second and third are written by authors
who wrote many crime and detective novels.
The Big
Sleep starts
with Philip Marlowe arriving at the Sternwood residence at the request of
General Sternwood, who is being blackmailed a second time. Both instances of
blackmail are the result of questionable activities by the second of his two
daughters, Carmen. She is the one who has the drug problem and is willing to
pose for compromising pictures. Shawn Regan, who used to work for General
Sternwood and followed up on the first instance of blackmail, is rumored to
have run off with Eddie Mars’s wife and is now unavailable to help General
Sternwood resolve Carmen’s troubles. Eddie Mars is the owner of a local casino,
where Vivian Sternwood, the older of the two Sternwood daughters, has lost and
won large sums of money. (Both daughters have trouble staying out of trouble!) Marlowe
starts his investigation with Arthur Gwynne Geiger, the person sending the
requests for money to General Sternwood, which turn out to be promissory notes
signed by his daughter Carmen.
What
follows is a complicated plot that parallels Marlowe’s investigation. I’ve seen
the film, both versions (more about this below), several times, and I have read
Raymond Chandler’s novel. There is some lore about the plot being so
complicated that even the screenwriters didn’t know who killed which character.
Wikipedia states:
The Big Sleep is known for its convoluted plot. During filming,
neither the director nor the cast knew whether the chauffeur Owen Taylor had
killed himself or was murdered. A cable was sent to Chandler, who told his
friend Jamie Hamilton in a March 21, 1949. letter: “They sent me a wire . . .
asking me, and dammit I didn't know either.”
(Click
here for more at Wikipedia about the film.) This type of story adds to the
mystique and allure of the film—and quite successfully, too.
(This blog post about
The Big Sleep contains all the spoilers. I mean it!)
The plot
of the film is indeed quite complicated, but it’s not indecipherable—especially
if you are willing to see it more than once. I have to admit that seeing it
several times helped me quite a bit. I took the following notes after seeing
the film several years ago, which now keeps the plot from getting too tangled
for me:
Dead:
◊
Shawn Regan: killed by Carmen Sternwood in the book,
by Eddie Mars and perhaps with help from Carmen Sternwood in the film
◊
Arthur Gwynn Geiger: killed by Owen Taylor
◊
Owen Taylor, the Sternwoods’ chauffeur: killed by Joe
Brody
◊ Joe Brody, killed by Carol Lundgren,
Geiger’s chauffeur
◊
Harry Jones, now with Agnes Lowzier after Brody’s
murder, killed by Lash Canino
◊
Lash Canino, killed by Philip Marlowe
◊
Eddie Mars, gunned down by his own henchmen
◊
Book explains the title (the big sleep = death), but I
don’t think the film ever does.
I suspect
that many viewers in 1946 were more interested in seeing Bogart and Bacall on
the big screen. In fact, one of the reasons that the original version of The
Big Sleep was reshot was to take advantage of the on-screen chemistry
between Bogart and Bacall and to satisfy fans who wanted to see more of them.
The cover of the DVD that I watched shows the theatrical release poster, which
proclaims, “The picture they were born for!”
The DVD
comes with a short documentary to explain many of the changes and the reasons
for them: The Big Sleep Comparisons 1945/1946. UCLA
archivist Robert Gitt analyzes the differences between the 1945 and 1946 versions.
Here are some of the points that Gitt makes in the DVD documentary:
◊
Filming started on October
10, 1944, and ended on January 12, 1945. The film was ready for release to the
public in March 1945. However, World War II ended in 1945. The Big Sleep
was shelved for a year and a half so Warner Brothers could release all its
war-themed films that it had in the pipeline and avoid having them become
dated.
◊
Howard Hawkes, Humphrey Bogart,
Lauren Bacall, and others reshot scenes to capitalize on the chemistry between
Bacall and Bogart. The producers wanted her to act more like her character,
Marie “Slim” Browning, in To Have and Have Not (1944), which was an
immensely popular film. Her performance in her second film, Confidential
Agent, was panned by critics, so much so that many questioned her ability
to act at all.
◊
A letter dated November 16,
1945, from Charles K. Feldman, a talented Hollywood agent representing many in
the film industry, including Lauren Bacall, to Jack L. Warner requested retakes
with Lauren Bacall. He was trying to salvage his client’s, Lauren Bacall’s,
career. He thought Bacall’s insolence in To Have and Have Not was a hit
with audiences because she was more insolent than Bogart, and this was new and
refreshing.
◊
Warner agreed, and the reshot
version was released to the public on August 23, 1946.
I noticed
that Philip Marlowe doesn’t treat women particularly well in The Big Sleep.
He is quick with the clever but rude comeback, although this doesn’t seem to
hurt his chances with women, of course. Marlowe/Bogart is the leading man, and
this is 1946. It certainly didn’t stop me from rooting for him and Vivian. Maybe
they deserve one another? Anyway, here are a couple of examples:
◊
After Marlowe does some
research in the library, one of the librarians tells him, “You know, you don’t
look like a man who’d be interested in first editions.” His quick comeback: “I
collect blondes in bottles, too.”
◊
When Marlowe continues his
investigation at the Acme Bookstore, which is across the street from Geiger’s
bookshop, he and the proprietor of the Acme Bookstore decide to share a drink.
She doesn’t even get a name, although Marlowe has a rather long and
romantically entangled stakeout in her store. He is willing to get to know her
better, shall we say, while on the job, but she has to take off her glasses and
change her appearance to suit him.
