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''The Big Sleep'' is a 1946 American film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of the 1939 novel of the same name by Raymond Chandler. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective
Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
and
Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary ...
as Vivian Rutledge in a story about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its results". William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and
Jules Furthman Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 – September 22, 1966) was an American magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter. Biography Furthman was born in Chicago. His brother was the writer Charles Furthman. During World War I he w ...
co-wrote the screenplay. Initially produced in late 1944, the film's release was delayed by over a year due to the studio wanting to release war films in anticipation of the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. A cut was released to servicemen overseas in 1945 shortly after its completion. During its delay, Bogart and Bacall married and Bacall was cast in ''
Confidential Agent ''Confidential Agent'' is a 1945 American spy film starring Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall which was a Warner Brothers production. The movie was directed by Herman Shumlin and produced by Robert Buckner with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. ...
''. When the movie failed, reshoots were done in early 1946 meant to take advantage of the public's fascination with "Bogie and Bacall". The film was finally released by Warner Bros. on August 31, 1946. The film was a critical and commercial success, and led to two more "Bogie and Bacall" films by Warner Bros.: '' Dark Passage'' (1947) and '' Key Largo'' (1948). In 1997, the original 1945 cut was restored and released. That same year, the U.S.
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and added it to the
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
.


Plot

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
private detective
Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
is summoned to the mansion of General Sternwood, who wants to resolve "gambling debts" his daughter Carmen owes to bookseller Arthur Geiger. As Marlowe leaves, Sternwood's older daughter Vivian stops him. She suspects her father's true motive for hiring a detective is to find his protégé Sean Regan who disappeared a month earlier. Marlowe goes to Geiger's shop, which is minded by Agnes Louzier, and then follows Geiger home. Hearing a gunshot and a woman's scream, he breaks in to find Geiger's body and a drugged Carmen, as well as a hidden camera empty of film. After taking Carmen home, he returns and discovers that the body has disappeared. During the night, Marlowe learns that Sternwood's driver, Owen Taylor, has been found dead in a limo floating off the Lido Pier, having been struck on the back of the head. Vivian comes to Marlowe's office the next morning with scandalous pictures of Carmen that she received with a blackmail demand for the negatives. Marlowe returns to Geiger's bookstore and follows a car to the apartment of Joe Brody, a gambler who previously blackmailed General Sternwood. He then finds Carmen in Geiger's house, where she insists that it was Brody who killed Geiger. They are interrupted by the landlord, gangster Eddie Mars. Marlowe goes to Brody's apartment, where he finds Agnes and Vivian. They are interrupted by Carmen, who wants her photos. Marlowe disarms her and sends Vivian and Carmen home. Brody admits he was behind the blackmailing, having stolen the negatives from Taylor, but then has to answer the door and is shot. Marlowe chases the killer and apprehends Carol Lundgren, Geiger's former driver, who believes Brody is swindling him. Marlowe calls the police to arrest Lundgren. Marlowe visits Mars' casino where he asks about Regan, who supposedly ran off with Mars' wife. Mars is evasive and tells Marlowe that Vivian is running up gambling debts. Vivian wins a big wager and then wants Marlowe to take her home. A stooge of Mars' attempts to rob Vivian but Marlowe knocks him out. While driving back, Marlowe presses Vivian on her connection with Mars but she admits nothing. Back at home, Marlowe finds a flirtatious Carmen waiting for him. She says she did not like Regan and mentions that Mars calls Vivian frequently. When she attempts to seduce Marlowe, he throws her out. The next day, Vivian tells him he can stop looking for Regan; he has been found in Mexico and she is going to see him. Mars has Marlowe beaten up to stop him investigating further. He is found by Harry Jones: an associate of Agnes and besotted with her. Jones conveys her offer to reveal Mars' wife's location for $200. When Marlowe goes to meet him and be taken to her hiding place, he spots Canino, a gunman hired by Mars, who is there to find Agnes. As Marlowe watches from hiding, Canino threatens Jones until Jones tells him Agnes's location. Canino then forces Jones to have a "drink" which turns out to be poison. Afterward, Marlowe discovers that Jones lied about Agnes's location. Agnes telephones the office while Marlowe is still there and he arranges to meet her. She has seen Mona Mars behind an auto repair shop near a town called Realito. When he arrives, Marlowe is attacked by Canino. He awakes tied up, with Mona watching over him. Vivian is there too and frees Marlowe, allowing him to get his gun and kill Canino. They drive back together and Marlowe calls Mars from Geiger's house, pretending to be still in Realito. Mars arrives with four men, who set up an ambush outside. When Mars enters, surprised to see Marlowe, Marlowe says Mars has been blackmailing Vivian, as Carmen had killed Regan; Mars claims she did this in a mental haze, though Marlowe doubts Mars' credibility. He then forces Mars outside, where he is shot by his own men. Marlowe calls the police, telling them that Mars killed Regan, which may be the truth. He also convinces Vivian that her sister needs psychiatric care, and Vivian says to Marlowe of her own problems that there's "Nothing you can't fix."


Cast

* Humphrey Bogart as
Philip Marlowe Philip Marlowe () is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, who was characteristic of the hardboiled crime fiction genre. The hardboiled crime fiction genre originated in the 1920s, notably in ''Black Mask'' magazine, in which Dashiel ...
*
Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary ...
as Vivian Sternwood Rutledge * John Ridgely as Eddie Mars *
Martha Vickers Martha Vickers (born Martha MacVicar; May 28, 1925 – November 2, 1971) was an American model and actress. Early life Vickers was born Martha MacVicar in Ann Arbor, Michigan; her father was an automobile dealer. She began her career as a mo ...
as Carmen Sternwood * Sonia Darrin as Agnes Lowzier (uncredited) * Dorothy Malone as Acme Bookstore proprietress * Regis Toomey as Chief Inspector Bernie Ohls * Peggy Knudsen as Mona Mars * Charles Waldron as General Sternwood * Charles D. Brown as Norris, Sternwood's butler * Bob Steele as Lash Canino *
Elisha Cook, Jr. Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor famed for his work in films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of TSPDT: They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, Cook appeared in a total of 21 film n ...
as Harry Jones * Louis Jean Heydt as Joe Brody *
Trevor Bardette Trevor Bardette (born Terva Gaston Hubbard; November 19, 1902 – November 28, 1977) was an American film and television actor. Among many other roles in his long and prolific career, Bardette appeared in several episodes of '' Adventures of S ...
as Art Huck, gas station owner (uncredited) * Tommy Rafferty as Carol Lundgren (uncredited) * Ben Welden as Pete, Mars' henchman (uncredited) *
Tom Fadden Tom Fadden (January 6, 1895 – April 14, 1980) was an American actor. He performed on the legitimate stage, vaudeville, in films and on television during his long career. Early life Fadden was born in Bayard, Iowa, on January 6, 1895; his fathe ...
as Sidney, Mars' henchman (uncredited) * Theodore von Eltz as A.G. Geiger (uncredited)


Production


Writing

''The Big Sleep'' is known for its convoluted plot. Similar to ''
To Have and Have Not ''To Have and Have Not'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1937 by Charles Scribner's Sons. The book follows Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain out of Key West, Florida. ''To Have and Have Not'' was Hemingway's second novel set in th ...
'', there was no finalized script during filming due to the constant changes during production. The composition of the screenplay involved Hawks and three writers. Leigh Brackett and William Faulkner wrote alternating sections of the initial draft before exiting once they turned in their final draft.
Jules Furthman Jules Furthman (March 5, 1888 – September 22, 1966) was an American magazine and newspaper writer before working as a screenwriter. Biography Furthman was born in Chicago. His brother was the writer Charles Furthman. During World War I he w ...
and Hawks rewrote during production to help appease censorship from the Hays Office, which was vehement about excluding sexual themes. In the novel, Geiger is selling pornography – then illegal and often associated with organized crime – and is a homosexual having a relationship with Lundgren. Carmen is described as being nude in Geiger's house and later nude and in Marlowe's bed. The
sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
of Geiger and Lundgren goes unmentioned in the film because explicit references to homosexuality were prohibited. Carmen's sexuality from the novel also became more thinly veiled. To pass the censorship Carmen had to be fully dressed and the pornographic elements could only be alluded to with cryptic references to photographs of Carmen wearing a "Chinese dress" and sitting in a "Chinese chair". A scene of her in Marlowe's bed was replaced with a scene in which she appears sitting fully dressed in Marlowe's apartment, for him to promptly kick her out. This scene was initially omitted from the 1945 cut, but restored for the 1946 version. Midway through filming, Hawks and the cast realized that they did not know 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".


Production

Principal photography on the film took place on the Warner Bros. backlot from October 10, 1944, to January 12, 1945. Filming was meant to be completed in late November, but was continually delayed due to Bogart's increased drinking. He was in the process of ending his tumultuous marriage to his wife Mayo Methot following his affair with Bacall during ''To Have and Have Not'' . As a result of his drinking and abuse from Methot, Bogart was unable to work for several days. Warner Bros. studio head
Jack L. Warner Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some ...
was frustrated that he was shut out of the production and sent a memo:
"Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop."


Post-production

Although post-production ended in March 1945, ''The Big Sleep'' was delayed by Warner Bros. until they had turned out a backlog of war-related films. Because the war was ending, the studio feared the public might lose interest in the films, while ''The Big Sleep'' subject was timeless. However, there are several indications of the film's wartime production, such as the female taxi driver who says to Bogart, "I'm your girl". Wartime rationing also influences the film: dead bodies are called "red points", which referred to wartime meat rationing and Marlowe's car has a "B" gasoline rationing sticker in the lower passenger-side window, indicating he is essential to the war effort and therefore allowed eight gallons of gasoline per week. Soon after completing ''The Big Sleep'', Bogart divorced Mayo Methot and married Bacall in May 1945. In June, Bacall began filming for her first film without Bogart ''
Confidential Agent ''Confidential Agent'' is a 1945 American spy film starring Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall which was a Warner Brothers production. The movie was directed by Herman Shumlin and produced by Robert Buckner with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. ...
''. The film, released in November 1945, was deemed a critical and commercial disappointment, with Bacall's acting panned by critics. To capitalize on the "Bogie and Bacall" phenomenon that had developed, Bacall's agent
Charles K. Feldman Charles K. Feldman (April 26, 1905 – May 25, 1968) was a Hollywood attorney, film producer and talent agent who founded the Famous Artists talent agency. According to one obituary, Feldman disdained publicity. "Feldman was an enigma to Holly ...
asked the studio to re-shoot scenes for ''The Big Sleep''. Warner agreed, and these scenes were shot in early January 1946. Julius Epstein wrote the reshoots, but he was not given a credit. Although only about twenty minutes of the film's original 1945 cut was removed and replaced, twenty minutes of was either condensed, altered, or eliminated entirely with new footage. For example, in the 1945 cut, Marlowe explores Geirger's house, where he doesn't in the 1946 release. A new sequence of Marlowe and Rutledge meeting in a restaurant was also added, replacing a ten-minute sequence of Marlowe meeting at the District Attorney's office, and Rutledge coming to Marlowe's office a second time.


Casting

Nina Foch had tested for screen role of Carmen. However, Hawks cast Vickers in the role after seeing a modeling photo of her. He worked with Vickers closely on the role of Carmen, and later convinced Warner Bros. to buy out her contract with
Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...
. Sonia Darrin was cast in the role of Agnes. Hawks did not like her initial screen test, but after supervising her makeup and wardrobe for another test, he cast her in the part. Her credit in the movie's credits were removed when Jack Warner entered into a feud with her agent Arthur Pine following the film's completion. Due to the reshoots, a number of actors from the first cut did not appear in the second cut. Pat Clark was initially cast as Mona Mars. However, Clark was unavailable when her scenes were reshot in January 1946. Peggy Knudsen was cast to replace her. James Flavin and Thomas E. Jackson were cast as Police Captain Cronjager and District Attorney Wade. However, the did not appear in the 1946 cut of the film when their scene – set in the District Attorney's office – was removed.


1997 release of the 1945 original cut

In the mid-1990s, the original 1945 cut was found in the
UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the a ...
. It was discovered that this version had been released to the military to show to troops in the South Pacific. Upon learning of this, numerous benefactors, such as American magazine publisher Hugh Hefner and
Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...
, raised the money to pay for its restoration. The original version of ''The Big Sleep'' was released in art-house cinemas in 1997 for a short exhibition run along with a comparative documentary about the cinematic and content differences between the 1945 cut and 1946 release.


Reception

''The Big Sleep'' premiered in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on August 23, 1946, before being released on August 31. According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $3,493,000 domestically and $1,375,000 foreign.


Critical response

Between the 1945 cut and the 1946 release, critics have become divided as to which version is superior. Some consider the 1945 cut to be the best, partly due to the inclusion of a scene at the District Attorney's office where the facts of the case, thus far, are laid out. Others consider the 1946 release to be the best due to it focusing more on the Bogart-Bacall pairing. Chandler praised Martha Vickers' performance in the original 1945 cut, feeling that she overshadowed Bacall's performance. He felt that the deletion of many of her scenes in the 1946 release were done to enhance Bacall's performance.


Contemporary reviews

At the time of its 1946 release, Bosley Crowther said the film leaves the viewer "confused and dissatisfied", points out that Bacall is a "dangerous looking female" ..."who still hasn't learned to act" and notes:
''The Big Sleep'' is one of those pictures in which so many cryptic things occur amid so much involved and devious plotting that the mind becomes utterly confused. And, to make it more aggravating, the brilliant detective in the case is continuously making shrewd deductions which he stubbornly keeps to himself. What with two interlocking mysteries and a great many characters involved, the complex of blackmail and murder soon becomes a web of utter bafflement. Unfortunately, the cunning script-writers have done little to clear it at the end.
''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' film critic James Agee called the film "wakeful fare for folks who don't care what is going on, or why, so long as the talk is hard and the action harder" but insists that "the plot's crazily mystifying, nightmare blur is an asset, and only one of many"; it calls Bogart "by far the strongest" of its assets and says Hawks, "even on the chaste screen...manages to get down a good deal of the glamorous tawdriness of big-city low life, discreetly laced with hints of dope addiction, voyeurism and fornication" and characterizing Lauren Bacall's role as "an adolescent cougar".


Comparison of the 1945 original cut and 1946 release

Film critic Roger Ebert included the film in his list of "Great Movies" and wrote,
Working from Chandler's original words and adding spins of their own, the writers (William Faulkner, Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett) wrote one of the most quotable of screenplays: it's unusual to find yourself laughing in a movie not because something is funny but because it's so wickedly clever.
Ebert praised the film's writing (the above quote is not specific to the 1945 version but is in reference to both films). Ebert preferred the 1946 version and said,
The new scenes f the 1946 versionadd a charge to the film that was missing in the 1945 version; this is a case where "studio interference" was exactly the right thing. The only reason to see the earlier version is to go behind the scenes, to learn how the tone and impact of a movie can be altered with just a few scenes... As for the 1946 version that we have been watching all of these years, it is one of the great films noir, a black-and-white symphony that exactly reproduces Chandler's ability, on the page, to find a tone of voice that keeps its distance, and yet is wry and humorous and cares.
In a 1997 review, Eric Brace of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' wrote that the 1945 original had a "slightly slower pace than the one released a year later and a touch less zingy interplay between Bogart and Bacall, but it's still an unqualified masterpiece".


Accolades

In 2003, AFI named Philip Marlowe the 32nd greatest hero in film. The film placed 202nd on the 2012 '' Sight & Sound'' critics' poll of the greatest films ever made and also received two directors' votes.


Home media

A region-1 (U.S. and Canada) DVD version of ''The Big Sleep'' was released in 2000. It is a double-sided, single-layer disc; with the 1946 theatrical version on side-A (114 m), and the 1945 version (116 m) on side-B. The 1946 opening credits appear on both versions, including Peggy Knudsen, who never appears in the original version. Nowhere is the original actress, Pat Clark, ever credited. The DVD also contains a 16-minute, edited version of the 1997 documentary comparing the two versions that is narrated by Robert Gitt, who worked on the restoration of the 1945 version. Film critic Walter Chaw writes of the DVD releases of ''The Big Sleep'' and ''To Have and Have Not'' (1944), "The fullscreen transfer of ''The Big Sleep'' is generally good but, again, not crystalline, though the grain that afflicts the earlier picture is blissfully absent. Shadow detail is strong—important given that ''The Big Sleep'' is oneiric—and while the brightness seems uneven, it's not enough to be terribly distracting. The DD 1.0 audio is just fine." A
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
edition was released by Warner Bros. in 2015. It "includes the 1945 cut of the film that was screened for overseas servicemen, running two minutes longer and containing scenes not used in the official release".


References


External links

* * * * * *
''The Big Sleep''
essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 393-394 {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Sleep, The (1946 Film) 1946 films 1940s crime films Alternative versions of films American crime films American black-and-white films American detective films Films scored by Max Steiner Films based on American novels Films based on mystery novels Films directed by Howard Hawks Film noir Films set in Los Angeles Films with screenplays by Leigh Brackett United States National Film Registry films Warner Bros. films Films with screenplays by Jules Furthman Films with screenplays by William Faulkner Films based on works by Raymond Chandler 1940s English-language films 1940s American films