The Big Sleep
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Movie Reviews of The Big Sleep
Movie Review: A Noir Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Big Sleep" is one of the most unique adaptations of a detective novel ever brought to the screen. Watching this film is one of the true joys of being a film buff. This is extraordinary entertainment that grabs your attention quickly and holds it until the final shot. It is exciting and engaging, and a favorite of all detective film fans.
Director Howard Hawks turned Raymond Chandler's most popular story into an absolutely mesmerizing celluloid masterpiece. Chandler's complex novel was adapted for the screen by William Faulkner, and while we may never know for sure who committed one of the murders in this blurry crime noir, like all Hawks' films, it is so incredibly entertaining we really don't care. It is full of sharp dialog and dreamy images comparable to being slipped a "mickey." One critic actually compared it to a hangover.
The story itself moves at a terrific clip, and there is so much going on you might get lost if you blink. Humphry Bogart is Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, and from the moment he arrives to talk to General Sternwood and gets mixed up with his daughters this is a film classic.
One would think with a young and sultry Bacall getting tangled up with Bogart for the first time, they would be everything in this film; they are not, however. Bacall portrays the General's sultry older daughter, Vivian, but it is the sexy and thumb-sucking Carmen whom Marlowe meets first.
Martha Vickers gives a performance that has you thinking about her throughout, even when she isn't present. She steals every scene she is in and is one of the most memorable dolls in noir history. This was Vickers' finest moment on film and forever earned her a place in movie history.
The story takes off quickly as the very sick Sternwood wants Marlowe to look into a little matter involving blackmail and his daughters. But as Marlowe follows the trail of gambling debts, he finds one body after another and spends all his energy trying to extricate Carmen and Vivian from the mess.
Marlowe and Vivian have a spark that gives him incentive to get the job done, but he may not be able to head off the rollercoaster headed for the little kitten, Carmen, who may turn out to have some very large claws. Dorothy Malone has a brief but sexy role as a clerk who shares more than a drink with Marlowe.
Hawks filmed this as a moody dream of dialog and images hard to forget. Bogart's Marlowe has his hands full trying to keep Carmen out of trouble. And the sparks that begin to fly between he and Carmen's big sister, Vivian, may not be enough to overcome her involvement with some of the players for the other team.
Trying to find a way to keep the fast-rising body count from getting any higher, while at the same time keeping Vivian and her little sister Carmen in the clear, will take some dangerous turns for Marlowe.
Bacall has never been more beautiful or inviting than when she is slumped down in the seat of Bogart's car, just waiting for him to kiss her. You have to see this film to really appreciate it. No description could ever do it justice. You'll never see anything else like it in American cinema. A true noir classic, and one of Howard Hawks' many masterpieces.
Movie Review: Just Dreaming of a Coloured Sleep
Summary: 5 Stars
The Big Sleep
I hear the objections. How can you tamper with the virtual perfection of such a classic. The point is well taken because this is my favourite film though it diverges quite a lot from Chandler's masterpiece in some respects. But what a stunning film portrayal. Great actors, great music, great editing, great script...but no colour. I chanced to see the four big Bogart classics of the 40's, The Big Sleep, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo in what I believe was a Turner initiated digitally enhanced and colourised format many years ago...and it was like seeing these classics in a new dimension. Instead of the rather grey foggy reproduction we are used to, the picture was sharp and I began to see things I hadnt seen in the black and white version. I fell in love again with these classics and treasure the video copies I've retained.
Now I know the objections to this process all too well. Sacrilege they say. Destroying the whole tone of these Film Noir classics. But a few comments in response. Firstly, no one in 1939 objected to the newly available technicolour processes that produced the masterpieces Gone with the Wind and Wizard of Oz. We'd all be horrified to have to watch them in monotone. Ah, but these are not film noir productions they say. Well what about Chinatown, a modern classic of that genre. Would you want to see it only in black and white. Hardly! Secondly, the Bogart films were produced on a limited budget and the only reason we arent seeing these classics in colour is because THEY COULDNT AFFORD TO PAY FOR THE COLOUR PROCESS WITHIN THE AVAILABLE BUDGET. Nobody at that time or today though would be complaining if they had been produced in colour. And I suggest that those who first saw the film would have appreciated them more in a coloured form. Certainly the producers thought so, otherwise why did they produce coloured film posters to promote the films.
Thirdly, the problem is that we get used to seeing things in a certain form through habit...doesnt make them better only comfortable like an old lounge vs a new lounge. But despite our feelings of loss we quickly get used to the new lounge after many sittings and I suspect most people would get used to the 'superior' qualities of the colourised Bogart classics after a few sittings. Or are we going to have the African Queen decolourised because we like Bogart's films that way.
I love the Bogart classics, but I love them more in colour and plead with those who release these classics to DVD to release the colourised versions. Those who want to keep watching the monotone versions can still buy their own preferences. For me though, please make mine a coloured Sleep.
Movie Review: "You're trying to find out what your father hired me to find out, and I'm trying to find out why you want to find out..."
Summary: 5 Stars
The Big Sleep is certainly an excellent film; but I would be mighty impressed if you could follow one hundred percent of that plot with all those characters getting murdered by the second! Please don't misunderstand; just as others have noted this will be very interesting and even entertaining for you; it's truly one of the better films I've ever seen. The acting is uniformly superb and very convincing; the casting was great; the script is well written with plenty of lines that have more than one meaning; and the choreography shines bright right along with the cinematography. However, the plot meanders quite a bit and so when you watch this just relax and enjoy it without trying too hard to worry exactly who's after whom and why.
When the action starts (and believe me, you're going see a LOT of action), we quickly meet private investigator Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) who is hired by the elderly General Sternwood (Charles Waldron) because a man is blackmailing Carmen (Martha Vickers), one of his two rather pretty and somewhat loose daughters. The General wants Philip to get this guy off Carmen's back so that the family will not be disgraced publicly; Philip also meets the General's other daughter who's already a divorcee, Vivian (Lauren Bacall); and they don't exactly hit it off.
Now of course it all be neat and clean if that was the bulk of the plot; but it isn't. We eventually find out why that man wanted money from Carmen; and we also see the connection between Eddie Mars (John Ridgely) and Carmen as well as Vivian. There is much to speculate about along the way--it isn't all just murder after murder--why are so many people involved in this scenario, all of them trying to get a piece of the action (as in "money") for themselves. We get great performances by Elisha Cook Jr. as small time crook Harry Jones who follows Philip Marlowe in his car; Louis Jean Heydt as Joe Brody, another small time gangster who's in on at least part of the deal; and Sonia Darrin does just great as Agnes Lowzier who is also mixed up in all this.
The DVD comes with two versions of the film: we get the original version of the film and we get the version of the film that was released to mass audiences in 1946. There were changes in the script to enhance Lauren Bacall's character as well as a few other things. There's also a terrific documentary that illustrates the differences between the two versions of the film.
The Big Sleep may have a plot that is rather complicated to follow, but the magic is that it all works anyway and it has some incredibly fine acting with magical chemistry between Bogart and Bacall. I highly recommend this film for fans of the actors in this movie; and people who enjoy film noir will not be disappointed.
Movie Review: Wake up
Summary: 5 Stars
Humphrey Bogart's most famous roles are as Sam Spade and Rick Blaine, a pair of callous wise-guys. But he played a softer-hearted tough guy in "The Big Sleep," adapted from Raymond Chandler's novel by the legendary Howard Hawks -- a fast, witty, tough-fisted thriller, with excellent acting and sizzling chemistry.
Private "shamus" Philip Marlowe (Bogart) is hired by the decrepit General Sternwood to hunt down a man who's blackmailing his creepy, childlike daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers). It seems like a straightforward case -- but when he manages to track down the blackmailer, he finds him shot dead in a porn studio -- and a drugged Carmen sitting nearby.
Marlowe drags her home, and orders her fiery sister Vivian (Lauren Bacall) to say nothing of where she's been. Now the investigation is more serious, and Marlowe finds himself walking a tightrope of blackmail, pornography, gambling, mobs and other charming illegalities -- and at the heart of it is the location of one of Sternwood's employees.
"The Big Sleep" was a confusing book -- even Raymond Chandler couldn't follow all the threads, and wasn't able to pin one of the murders on anyone. So it's not surprising that the movie adaptation is similarly befuddling, even with some plot elements smoothed out to simplify the story. It still takes three or four viewings to even start figuring it out.
But it is really enjoyable. Hawks captures the taut, slightly humorous tone of Chandler's writing. That's especially hard, considering everybody except Marlowe and the General are double or triple-crossing somebody else, and the plotlines are murky enough that even at the end, you can't tell what's going on.
But Hawks fills it with classic lines ("What's wrong with you?" "Nothing you can't fix.") and tight action scenes, such as when Bogart sends a man out the door to be shot by his own men. There are moments of humor too, such as when Vivian and Marlowe play a prank call to a policeman ("I can do what? Where? Oh, I wouldn't like that, and neither would my daughter!").
Marlowe's a more likable character than Rick or Spade -- he may be rough and wise-cracking, but he also has soft spots and a likable sense of humor ("I don't like [my manners] myself. They are pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings"). And he has sparking chemistry with real-life wife Bacall, who plays a hardened rich girl who is desperate to protect her dad and sister, even to the point of framing herself.
"The Big Sleep" is a classic for good reasons -- it may be murky to the point of imcomprehensibility, but it's also wickedly funny, taut and tightly directed. Definitely a must-see.
Movie Review: The pre-release version is the better version
Summary: 5 Stars
For whatever reason (possibly the war), this movie was made but held off from release, and in the meantime Bogart and Bacall (BoCall?) became a hot item, so the film had new scenes filmed a year later to take advantage of their fame as a couple, and only then was it released.
Problem is, the new scenes detract from the movie. This is a story, not a vehicle for stars to show off their romance with a wink to the audience. The movie will be humming along in the theatrical release, then everything stops while we have to sit through Bacall singing seductively and Bogart making double entendres.
The pre-theatrical version struck the right balance between flirtatious banter and the overall story (after all, the book doesn't have such a strong romance in it, and we are supposed to be adapting the book). The pre-theatrical version is also slightly easier to follow - well, to be more accurate, it's later in the game when you become totally confused, due to a "recap" by one of the characters which is cut from the theater version.
The plot is notoriously incomprehensible, and the first time I saw it, I could only say, "Apparently everyone was blackmailing everyone else." To summarize quickly: both daughters of Bogart's client are being blackmailed, for different reasons. The different sets of blackmailers fight and replace each other in the overall scheme. That's the basic outline. It actually DOES all make sense, if you go back and unravel it all*, but it's not presented clearly enough to understand from viewing. But hey, the cool thing is the overall atmosphere of noirish L.A. and seeing Bogart play the character of Phillip Marlowe perfectly.
Watch the pre-theatrical version: it's the one that's untainted by the Hollywood publicity machine and its desire to "cash in" on real-life movie star gossip.
*The movie makes a little more sense than the book. In the book, Eddie Mars is almost an honorable person, who treats Marlowe fairly and is kind of a pushover. He also happens to be innocent of Regan's murder. So there's no real reason for Mars's henchman Canino to try to kill Marlowe (especially since Canino made it clear he follows orders, without freelancing). The movie makes Mars the killer of Regan, which makes it a bit more plausible for him to go after Marlowe.