1946 : Martha Vickers dans "Le grand sommeil"
Samedi 5 juin 2021 à 17h00Chaque mois avant l'événement Smackdown , des options suggérées pour un scrutin alternatif dans la meilleure actrice de soutien...
par Nick Taylor
Comment se fait-il que j'aie fini par regarder trois collaborations Bogie & Bacall dans l'ordre chronologique inverse tout en célébrant les années Smackdown ? Au moins, cela signifie que leurs couples sont devenus plus gratifiants que moins. Je classerais probablement To Have et Have Not jamais aussi légèrement au-dessus de The Big Sleep , mais est-ce un film sinueux et divertissant, faisant du vrai cinéma du roman de Raymond Chandler sans poncer son esprit cynique et son venin (Cet article est basé sur la version 1946 du film, plutôt que sur la coupe considérablement réorganisée et plus courte de 1945). Le grand sommeilpossède également le seul exemple réel dans l'un de ces films d'un interprète de soutien éclipsant vraiment le couple de stars pour son charisme et sa visibilité. Cette actrice est Martha Vickers, dans le rôle de Carmen Sternwood, la sœur droguée et nymphomane de Lauren Bacall. Si c'est une chose pour Moorehead de repartir avec un film à peine là comme Dark Passage , c'est un exploit tout à fait différent de regarder le tour de soutien intense, dangereux mais visiblement raccourci de Vickers glisser tout le film sous Bogie et Bacall à très près le sommet de leur jeu.
Avant d'entrer dans la performance de Vickers, il vaut la peine de partager un peu d'histoire d'Hollywood qui explique pourquoi Vickers est moins présent dans le film que ce à quoi on pourrait s'attendre...
The Big Sleep a été un peu réécrit en production pour souligner le nouvel engouement de la chimie à l'écran de Bogart et Bacall, leur donnant quelques scènes supplémentaires et beaucoup d'attention dans la publicité. Une fois terminé, le film a été retardé de quelques mois afin que Warner Bros. puisse envoyer le dernier de leurs films sur la Seconde Guerre mondiale alors que la fin de la guerre était encore fraîche. À un moment donné de toute cette attente, il a été reconnu que la performance de Vickers était si incendiaire qu'elle éclipsait ce couple de stars nouvellement créé, et plusieurs scènes de Carmen ont été omises du montage final. J'ai entendu le mérite d'avoir été le fer de lance de la décision de supprimer les scènes de Carmen attribuées à quelques sources différentes - le plus souvent Bacall ou les frères Warner eux-mêmes - mais le résultat final est toujours le même. Carmen est à la fois une instigatrice profondément centrale deLe grand sommeil et un invité quelque peu importun qui sort plus tôt que prévu, dans une scène qui ne ressemble en rien à un au revoir final.
Ne pas transformer cette horrible baise d'une actrice talentueuse et prometteuse en une tension productive de mon expérience de son film, mais étant donné à quel point cette information a radicalement coloré mes idées sur le travail de The Big Sleep et de Vickers, il y a quelque chose qui se sent véritablement transgressif à propos de sa présence. Carmen a toujours l'impression d'entrer dans une scène qui ne l'appelait pas à l'origine, la perturbant par le simple fait qu'elle soit là. Vous commencez à rester sur ses gardes pendant que vous regardez le film, attendant la prochaine fois qu'elle détournera toute l'image pour le bien de sa propre identité. Plus que cela, elle n'agit jamais comme on imagine qu'elle est censée le faire, prenant des scènes assez superficielles et les saisissant si bien qu'il est difficile de savoir comment réagir.
Tout cela est présent dès sa première scène au tout début de The Big Sleep, descendant les escaliers et interceptant Philip Marlowe (Bogie) alors qu'il attend dans le hall du manoir de sa famille pour rencontrer son père, le général Sternwood (Charles Waldron, excellent). Vêtu d'un haut boutonné sombre et d'une jupe blanche à pois, tout, de la tenue de Carmen à son langage corporel en passant par le feu dans ses yeux, suggère un personnage de fille parfaitement déformé par des appétits plus voraces et adultes. Elle dit à Marlowe qu'il n'est pas si grand comme si c'était un come-on avant de l'interroger sur son nom et son métier. Pendant tout ce temps, elle le jaugeait, ne rompant le contact visuel que pour le regarder de haut en bas à nouveau. Elle ne peut pas non plus s'empêcher de jouer avec ses cheveux, les tordant entre ses doigts et les faisant presque faire ses dents avant de les jeter derrière elle dans un geste faux-glamour. Carmen met fin à l'interaction en tombant soudainement vers lui pour qu'il puisse l'attraper, se prélassant dans ses bras avant qu'ils ne soient interrompus par le majordome. Sans un mot, elle se lève de lui et s'en va là où elle se dirigeait en premier lieu.
Le père de Carmen la décrit comme « une enfant qui aime toujours arracher les ailes des papillons », et attribue certains « vices de leur propre création » à elle et à sa sœur Vivian (Bacall) pour tenter d'expliquer davantage leurs névroses. Pourtant, on se demande si le général aurait dû l'appeler "gâtée" et "impitoyable" comme il l'a fait Vivian. Vous ne pouvez pas vraiment dire si Carmen est simplement une jeune fille agissant au-delà de ses années ou une femme adulte avec des attitudes rabougries - peut-être les deux, dans une certaine mesure, mais elle n'est ni trop pathologisée par le script ni jouée de manière limitante par Vickers. Franchement, tout sur Carmen est pleinement exposé ici - sa nymphomanie, sa volonté de se jeter dans des situations dangereuses pour son propre bénéfice, son étrangeté de fille - mais l'énumérer sape à quel point Vickers habite ces qualités dans ses regards chantants et son intensité frémissante. Elle suce son pouce comme si elle était charnellement Max Cady, l'offrant de manière carnivore et Danielle Bowman l'acceptant volontiers, pas nécessairement naïve ou incapable mais se surestimant incontestablement même en l'envisageant.
Il est presque hors de propos de parler des premiers films noirs américains en termes d'archétypes, en particulier par rapport aux films qui en ont été les pionniers. Cela vaut peut-être doublement pour les adaptations de Chandler, qui écrit ses femmes d'une manière qui apparaît parfois comme une série d'humeurs, d'angles, de couleurs et de parties du corps. Avoir Howard Hawks direct est certainement un énorme atout pour s'assurer que The Big Sleep est capable de présenter des personnages tangibles tout en conservant la complexité du genre du script. Néanmoins, il est tout aussi bénéfique d'avoir des interprètes aussi ingénieux que Vickers, Bacall, Dorothy Malone et Sonia Darrin esquivant gracieusement les stéréotypes sans minimiser ce qui est suspect, intelligent, érotique et astucieux à propos de leurs personnages.
Je devrais également remercier la créatrice de costumes Leah Rhodes, qui continue de trouver les bonnes tenues pour que Vickers ressemble à un coup de grâce tout en soulignant exactement la bonne ironie à propos de Carmen dans chaque scène. Sa première tenue est décontractée, riche et étonnamment normale, contrastant joliment avec tout ce qui est discordant dans le jeu de Vickers. Ma tenue préférée est l'ensemble entièrement noir avec une veste et une capuche que Carmen porte pour récupérer des photos compromettantes d'elle-même prises alors qu'elle était défoncée comme un cerf-volant. La négociation pour les photos entre Marlowe, Vivian et le couple en possession d'eux durait depuis plusieurs minutes. Carmen se fraye un chemin dans la chambre d'hôtel, tenant un homme sous la menace d'une arme et ayant l'air de finir de se faire passer pour une madone pour un portrait religieux, pourtant son apparence amplifie la perversité des contextes déjà sinistres. Elle est chargée de meurtre mais ferme dans sa main, et quand elle demande à Marlowe les photos, elle est aussi coquette et excitée par lui que lors de leur première rencontre.
Vickers, plus que quiconque dans la distribution, évite de classer facilement ou d'expliquer simplement qui est son personnage et ce qu'elle veut. Elle est trop liée à la jeunesse et à l'instabilité de Carmen pour vraiment être qualifiée de femme fatale. Il y a une étrange autonomie dans le rôle, car Carmen semble volontairement tomber dans les pièges dont sa famille doit si souvent la sauver, mais Vickers contextualise cela avec un hédonisme dévergondé et amusé qui est si réflexif qu'il semble à peine conscient de lui-même. Elle ne cherche pas à rendre la personnalité de Carmen moins transgressive ou instable au profit d'une femme plus cohérente et explicable. La façon dont elle fluctue entre les scènes d'excitation, d'intoxication, de colère et de confort est la chose la plus proche d'un arc que Vickers nous donne, s'immergeant si profondément dans l'impulsivité de Carmen que les fils conducteurs pour « pourquoi » elle est soudainement entrée dans une scène ne sont révélés qu'à mi-chemin, parfois par quelqu'un d'autre. Il y a des calculs derrière les choix de Carmen, mais ce sont des impulsions plus soudaines, parfois désespérées, par rapport aux contres astucieusement conçus que Vivian est parfois capable d'essayer sur Marlowe. Elle est capable de se faufiler dans le bureau de Marlowe, oui, mais elle s'endort en attendant son arrivée et est trop haute pour vraiment tenter de le séduire une fois qu'il y est.
Tout cela pour dire qu'il y a un réel sentiment de danger chaque fois que Carmen revient dans le film, qu'elle soit droguée et à peine capable de parler ou de pointer une arme avec la ferme intention de l'utiliser. Chaque fois qu'elle a réussi The Big Sleep, cela ressemble à un film légèrement différent, obligeant les autres personnages à reconsidérer à quel point il est facile d'être pris au dépourvu par quelqu'un qui ne peut s'empêcher de montrer sa main. Vickers est un précurseur aussi direct du génie mercuriel de Fiona Shaw dans The Black Dahlia que j'ai eu le plaisir d'en être témoin, même si elle a cruellement nié la même finition époustouflante qui rend Shaw si indélébile dans son film. C'est l'omission la plus flagrante de son rôle dans tout le film, et The Big Sleepéchoue presque à tenir l'atterrissage en la reléguant dans un personnage dont on ne parle que plutôt que celui qui peut dire exactement à quel point elle était cruciale ou non pour les crimes que Marlowe a été embauché pour enquêter. Et pourtant, Vickers est toujours une figure férocement mémorable, saisissant des scènes qui sont rarement en forme de «sienne» avec un tel feu qu'il est impossible de détourner le regard d'elle chaque fois qu'elle est à l'écran. Et Carmen ne voudrait pas que tu arrêtes de la regarder, n'est-ce pas ?
The Big Sleep: Howard Hawks’ steamy Noir classic is an eternal cinematic monument to the love between Bogart and Bacall
As a tribute to Humphrey Bogart on his 120th birth anniversary, here’s looking back at one of his most iconic roles: Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in Howard Hawks’ 1946 film adaptation of The Big Sleep, in which he co-starred with his beloved wife Lauren Bacall
“Bogart can be tough without a gun,Also he has a sense of humor that contains the grating undertone of contempt. [Alan] Ladd is hard, bitter and occasionally charming, but he is after all a small boy’s idea of a tough guy. Bogart is the genuine article”
Raymond Chandler on Bogart’s portrayal of Philip Marlowe
The Big Sleep , Howard Hawks’ film adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s book, confirms the adage that Great art stems from Chaos. The film starring Humphrey Bogart (as private detective Philip Marlowe) and his beloved wife Lauren Bacall(they married just before the release of this film) was one of the most chaotic and tumultuous productions in movie history. Bogart and Bacall met and fell in love while starring in Howard Hawks’ To Have and Have Not (1944). Stars and director came together again for this ostensibly darker film. Panned at that time of it’s release for being immoral and confusing, it is today considered one of the greatest Crime\Noir classics ever made; even though die hard fans (including yours truly) would agree that they cannot make heads or tails of the film’s plot. Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe was the epitome of the existential hero of the late 30’s and early 40’s, and over the years, several actors have played the role , but we don’t think of Robert Montgomery ,Dick Powell or James Garner when Marlowe’s name is mentioned: it’s Bogart’s sad, laconic face that springs immediately to mind – moving briskly through the sunny, cityscape of Los Angeles. and spitting out punchlines faster than bullets- he alone was the Hollywood icon of that 40’s existential hero : Tough, cynical, hard-boiled and sardonic; the perfect hero for a new cinematic movement called ‘Film Noir‘, that invaded the movie screens during, and post, WWII. Along with Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (brought to screen by Bogart’s good friend John Huston), The Big Sleep ranks as one of the seminal films in Bogart’s career. Of course, Bogart’s Marlowe is nothing like Chandler’s Marlowe; as was the case with the legendary stars of Hollywood’s golden age, Bogart never played characters, the characters played him. The characters are molded and polished to suit his personality and style , and there is no greater star than Bogart , who made his style his ultimate artistic expression. He had a limited range as an actor, but within that range , he was omnipotent. Dick Powell’s Marlowe in Murder, my Sweet epitomizes Chandler’s Marlowe much better, but ironically, it was Bogart’s super cool, super confident Marlowe that became Chandler’s personal favorite.
Howard Hawks was the perfect director to bring the story to the screen. Hawks has the distinction of making one great movie in every American film genre ; whether it’s Adventure, gangster, screwball comedy, western; think of Scarface, Only Angels have Wings, His Girl Friday, Red River etc. . The Big Sleep mixes the wit and tone of his screwball comedies and the harsh, existential mood of his gangster\adventure films to become the definitive detective\Noir thriller of the 1940’s. The great Orson Welles, once remarking about the difference between his two favorite directors : John Ford and Howard Hawks, commented that Ford was great poetry and Hawks was great prose. Ford made pure cinema , while Hawks made ‘Talkies‘ in it’s purest form. We remember the great visuals from Ford’s films; In Hawks’s films, it’s the actors\characters and their conversations that we remember the most. Even in the classic westerns that Hawks made – Rio Bravo, El Dorado – , it’s the dialogue and the character interactions that we remember the most, as opposed to Ford, where a landscape – (say)Monument Valley- was as memorable as his lead actor John Wayne. Hawks films are always dialogue driven chamber-pieces, and surprisingly for that kind of cinema, his films used to go wildly over-budget and over-schedule, simply because of the time and effort he used to take in refining and polishing the dialogues with the actors.The Big Sleep shows itself to be the quintessential Hawks film by the color, precision and richness of its dialogue, as well as an insolent, insouciance that marks the interactions between the characters. The rapid fire delivery that had been the basis of humor in the screwball comedies; think of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell trading barbs in His Girlf Friday, is mirrored here with greater subtlety of effect in the interactions between Bogart and Bacall. Hawks,in collaboration with his screenwriters William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman, and his principal actors, built on Chandler’s trademark witty exchanges, by adding completely new scenes and excising several plot points, to arrive at the dazzling movie we have in front of us. Like many of Hawks’ films, The Big Sleep is almost better to listen to than to watch. The film marked a major turning point for Hawks as a storyteller; starting with this film, he would abstain from having a fully rounded story or narrative arc, instead, concentrating on having a procession of great scenes that, on it’s own, is absolutely dazzling in the way they are staged and performed, but doesn’t necessarily build to an organic whole.Though nobody ever called Hawks a post-modern filmmaker, his films share that elaborate, ritualistic quality in scene building that’s most evident in the works of post-modern auteurs like Sergio Leone or Quentin Tarantino, where extreme emphasis is placed on a stylized form of character behavior and dialogue that rejects conventional storytelling logic, and concentrates on pure sensation and pleasure. For Hawks, the scene is the basic unit of filmmaking: do the scene well and audiences won’t care about the rest. His idea of a great film was a film with four great scenes and no bad scenes. Talking about The Big Sleep he once said, “We made a picture that worked pretty well… and I never figured out what was going on, but I thought the basic thing had great scenes in it and it was good entertainment”.
As for the process of making the film, well it deserves a movie on it’s own. There was so much going on during the production and Post-production, that it’s a miracle that the film arrived in the shape that we have now.
Consider this :
The plot of The Big Sleep was so ludicrously convoluted that at one point, the director, actors and the writers were unable to figure out if a minor character who Marlowe finds dead had been killed or committed suicide. They contacted Chandler, who had to admit that he didn’t know either.
Bogart and Bacall fell in love much to the chagrin of Howard Hawks , who was obsessed with playing Bacall’s Svengali. and he did his best to break up the relationship. So there was considerable tension between Bogart & Bacall and Hawks during the making of the film, to the point that after Bogart and Bacall married, Hawks refused to come back to re-shoot some scenes with them for the film (Though he eventually did)
Bogart himself was in turmoil, as he was a married man carrying on an extramarital affair with Bacall. He started drinking heavily to the point that the production had to be shut down due to his inability to work; Unprecedented for Bogart, who was a thorough professional and the studio’s workhorse.
Bogart was constantly dithering as to whether or not to leave his wife. He split up and then went back to his wife at least three time during the course of The Big Sleep shoot. Bogart’s indecision over whether or not to leave his wife triggered a bout of nerves for Lauren Bacall, whose hands shook whenever she had to light a cigarette or pour a drink during the filming.
Martha Vickers, who played Lauren’s nymphomaniac sister, turned out to
be so good that she shattered Miss Bacall completely. So the producers cut the picture in such a way that all her best scenes were left out except one
The ending of the film was a big problem, because the censors objected to every ending proposed by Hawks. Finally, Hawks asked the Production Code committee how they would end the film, and they came up with the idea of Marlowe forcing the gangster chief out of the house, where the criminal was shot by his own gang. Hawks was so impressed he offered to hire them as writers.
After the shooting was finished, the film remained on the Warner’s shelf for almost a year, because there was a backlog of WWII movies to be released. One of them was Confidential Agent starring Bacall. The film and Bacall’s performance was excoriated by the critics and Bacall’s agent begged Jack Warner to re-shoot some of Bacall’s scenes in The Big Sleep, inserting more insolent scenes like the ones she had with Bogart in To Have and Have Not. Warner agreed, and thus new scenes were added almost a year after the principal photography had finished on the film.
Now, any film with that kind of production history would have turned out to be a mess, so it’s a testament to the talents of Bogart, Bacall and Hawks, and the merits of the golden age studio system, that it turned out the way it did; not a mess , but a classic. For a film that’s basically a dark thriller, it’s dominant mood is that of romance and an easy, comfortable sexuality, where the women are just as insolent, competent and sublimely amoral as any of the men in the film. To increase the film’s sexual tension, Hawks decided that every woman in the film would find Marlowe irresistible and try to seduce him. The film boasts a gallery of (what we now refer to as) ‘Hawksian‘ woman: A breed of tough yet flirtations woman, who prefer to be in the company of men;who are not necessarily classically beautiful, but oozes a magnetic sexuality that the men finds irresistible; who are up-front in speaking her mind and keeping up with her male counterparts in witty banter as well as in taking the initiative to get what she wants personally as well as sexually. Two of these women are introduced in the beginning of the film itself. They are the Sternwood sisters: Vivian (Bacall) and Carmen(Martha Vickers). Along with them, we also get a hint of the two mysteries that will form the basis of the film’s narrative. A good detective thriller will have a strong mystery at his heart that the detective will investigate and solve by the end of the film. A great detective thriller will have two mysteries- one on the surface, which is what the Detective will be hired to solve , and one underneath, which will be the real mystery of the movie. Usually these mysteries run in parallel and converge at some point in the film. In the case of The Big Sleep,Marlowe has been hired by General Sternwood to find out why his young, nymphomaniac daughter Carmen is being blackmailed, and to take care of the blackmailer once he is found – The film begins with Marlowe arriving at the Sternwood mansion and being immediately accosted by the wild Carmen, “who tries to sit on him while he is standing” – Secondarily, we discover that the General is disturbed by having been seemingly betrayed by Sean Regan (who never appears in the film), who was once Sternwood’s trusted aide and who has disappeared. This is just a bit of information thrown out by the General, which Marlowe (or we the audience) doesn’t take very seriously, but as we will find out, will form the pivotal mystery of the film. And we get an inkling of this in the very next scene, where the General’s elder daughter, Vivian , is introduced and she assumes that Marlowe has been hired to search for Regan. Her treatment of Marlowe is rather hostile(or hostile flirtation) as she tries her best to extract information out of Marlowe about his visit, but Marlowe refuses to budge an inch, and their first meeting ends in acrimony, though the romantic\sexual tension between them is palpable.
Marlowe discovers that the putative blackmailer, Arthur Gwynn Geiger, has been running a rather shoddy extortion racket and has been using his connections with Eddie Mars, a gambler, to mask the real nature of his business. He has lured Carmen into his web, and has taken some compromising photographs of her. But Geiger is murdered, just as Marlowe is about to confront him, and Carmen is found at the crime scene. Marlowe takes Carmen home, making sure that nobody knows about her presence. The next one to die is Owen Taylor, the Sternwoods’ chauffeur, drowned in the pacific in his car (This is the most famous loose end in the story which even Chandler couldn’t solve). Now within the course of these events, two more Hawksian women are introduced (three actually, if one takes into account the flirtatious female cabby who helps Marlowe in following Geiger) . First is Agnes(Sonia Darrin), Geiger’s employee, who, with her accomplice, Joe Brody, hope to take over her late employer’s shady enterprises, which is run under the cover of a bookstore. Marlowe’s first meeting with her is rather amusing. He affects the persona of a fussy, nervous customer, as he barges into the bookstore inquiring about an 1860 edition of Ben-Hur. Of course, no such edition exits, but Agnes doesn’t know this, which increases Marlowe’s suspicions. Realizing that he isn’t going to get much out of an agitated Agnes, he beats a quick retreat. Next: we get one of the most entertaining (and my favorite) scene in the film, which doesn’t really serve much purpose in the larger scheme of things, but today, the film is unimaginable without it. After his meeting with Agnes, Marlowe walks into a neighboring book store, right across the street, where we are introduced to Dorothy Malone playing the proprietress of the store. Marlowe tries the same ‘Ben-Hur’ trick with her , but she’s up to the challenge, which impresses him immensely. An extended session of, what i’d call, ‘Verbal’ lovemaking happens between them, in the course of which Marlowe extracts relevant information from her about Geiger. As the scene progresses, the detective and the proprietress starts getting more and more intimate. Though it’s never explicitly stated, its implied that Marlowe and the proprietress made love inside the bookstore: It starts raining as Marlowe begins to leave the store, so she suggests he stay back. She then closes the store down for the afternoon, takes off her glasses ,lets her hair down and they both get ‘wet’ on a bottle of Rye that Marlowe carries around in his coat-pocket. The scene slowly fades-out, and when it fades-in, the rain has stopped and both of them are still in the bookstore, and appears quite well acquainted with each other. They see Geiger coming out of his place, and as Marlowe bids farewell, she reminds him to come back again if he ever need a book (meaning a book ‘that doesn’t exist’), slyly hinting at what transpired between them. These two ‘Bookstore scenes’ not only defines the nature of this film, but also the future course of Hawks’ career, as he would go on to do more and more of this: concentrating on individual scene building and character development at the expense of narrative coherence and dramatic complexity. Sometimes it worked spectacularly, as in the case of Rio Bravo, sometimes, as in the case of Man’s Favorite Sport, it failed miserably.
Marlowe later confronts Agnes and Brody in their hotel room, and is not surprised to see Vivian with them, as Marlowe has clearly deduced that the Agnes-Brody duo is behind the blackmail scheme. She is there to pay them off for Carmen’s pictures. But in the middle of their conversation, Carol Lundgren, another of Geiger’s former employees (and his ‘room-mate’) rushes in and shoots Brody in revenge for the death of Geiger. Marlowe has also discovered that Eddie Mars is taking an unusual interest in the case. Vivian says this is because Sean Regan ran off with Eddie Mars’ wife, but Marlowe is not convinced. Nevertheless, the first mystery – regarding Carmen’s blackmail – seems to have been solved. But the real mystery is only beginning, as Marlowe is intrigued about Eddie Mars’ influence over Vivian. Vivian, on the other hand, is determined to put an end to Marlowe’s investigation and she arranges to meet with him at a restaurant to pay him off for his services. The ‘Restaurant scene’ was the scene that was re-shot after a year, as the original scene that took place in Marlowe’s office was considered ‘not hot enough’ . Julius Epstein (of Casablanca fame) was specially brought in to write the scene. The scene begins with some steamy flirtation between Marlowe and Vivian, with horse-racing being used as a metaphor for sex.
Vivian:“…speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them work out a little first. See if they’re front-runners or come from behind… I’d say you don’t like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a lead, take a little breather in the back stretch, and then come home free….”
Vivian:“You’ve got a touch of class, but I don’t know how far you can go.”
Vivian:“A lot depends on who’s in the saddle.”
But soon enough the mood changes, as Marlowe starts questioning her about Eddie Mars and ‘what he has got on her’. This sets-off the second mystery in the story , which involves the disappearance of Sean Regan, and in the course of his investigation, Marlowe realizes that Eddie Mars killed Reagan, and he has deftly transferred the blame of the crime on to Carmen, and now he is blackmailing Vivian with it. By this time, Marlowe and Vivian have fallen in love, and Vivian helps Marlowe in his final confrontation with Mars. In the film’s climax, Eddie Mars is killed by his own henchmen , and Marlowe and Vivian looks destined for a happily ever after.
Obviously, the steamy nature of Chandler’s novel made it impossible for it to be adapted to screen as it is. So, apart from Hawks’ newly acquired penchant for sacrificing plot in favor of ‘great scenes’ , the disjointed nature of the film owes a lot to the fact that plot points from the novel had to be excised for satisfying the censors. Chandler’s novel is more specific about the facts of the morally decadent world in which Marlowe somehow survives. In the novel, it was Carmen who murdered Regan, not Mars. She is more evidently a nymphomaniac and a drug addict , and it is also clear that Geiger is running a pornographic bookshop and dealing in sex and drugs on the side; that Carol Lundgren is Geiger’s lover; that Regan was Vivian’s ex husband(in the movie she is just refereed to as Mrs. Rutledge) The most prominent excision is with regards to the political aspect of the novel. Like Roman Polanski’s Chinatown – a neo-noir tribute to Chandler’s books – , The Big Sleep also had a political dimension regarding police corruption in L.A., but obviously ,the production code would never allow such a portrayal of the law enforcement.
But what it loses in scope, it gains in intimacy and style. The cornerstone of the film’s success, both artistically and commercially, is the electrifying chemistry between Bogart and Bacall . In To Have and Have Not, we saw them falling in love. Here we see the ultimate consummation of that love. More than two great movie stars working their magic , what we see here is a man and a woman who are so much in love, so into each other, and so much in touch with each other’s emotions that they are hardly two people, they are one. Indeed, the film stands as an eternal monument to their endearing love story. And Hawks, though incensed by their burgeoning relationship, just couldn’t turn a blind eye to their electrifying chemistry, and used it to the betterment of the film. So after the shooting was finished, and Bogart and Bacall had married, new scenes, particularly more love scenes between Bogart and Bacall, was shot and inserted into the film. The main reason why The Big Sleep is in such an ambiguous condition is thanks to these extensive re-shoots carried out after the film was finished, in which about 20 minutes of footage was edited out to makes space for about 18 minutes of newly shot footage featuring Bogart and Bacall. In the original version, there was a scene in which Marlowe explains the mystery in detail to the cops; about Owen Taylor, Sean Regan and Carmen, that clears up a lot of confusion existing in the narrative. But with that scene gone, and the newly inserted footage remaining just ‘great scenes’ that doesn’t add much to the narrative , the film transforms from a well-plotted, classical detective story to a loosely plotted, character driven, sexually-charged ‘meta’ movie, where the puzzling nature of the film reflects the puzzling nature of the story it’s telling. The former gives us the pleasure and thrills of discovering a mystery, as we go along with Marlowe from scene to scene,but i’ll take the latter(the current) version over anything. It dazzles us with a kind of thrill-a-minute, sensual energy that i have hardly experienced in movies, even if it doesn’t lead to any logical conclusion.
The Big Sleep, when it released in 1946, was a big hit at the box office.The success of the film cemented both Bogart’s and Hawks’ reputation as preeminent practitioners of their respective crafts, and Bacall as a bona fide movie star. Post the success of the film, Bogart would become the highest paid actor in Hollywood, and he would subsequently launch his own production company. Ditto for Hawks, for whom The Big Sleep was his seventh box office hit in a row, making him one of the most powerful people in the industry. But on a personal level, the results from the film was bittersweet for the participants; bitter for Hawks, who lost his protege to Bogart, for whom things wouldn’t have been sweeter.. After three unsuccessful marriages, Bogart finally found happiness with Bacall, and their marriage would last till Bogart’s death in 1957. Hawks never worked with Bogart or Bacall again, nor did he ever make such a sophisticated, sexually charged urbane crime-drama like The Big Sleep. It’s a real pity, because Bogart’s heavily stylized acting style and dialogue delivery were a perfect match for the kind of stylized character behavior and dialogue that Hawks preferred. Every Bogart scene bristles with Hawksian One-liners that he delivers to perfection. Sample this:
“My, my, my! Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains! You know, you’re the second guy I’ve met today that seems to think a gat in the hand means the world by the tail”.
Or, Take his first encounter with Eddie Mars
Eddie Mars: Is that any of your business?
Philip Marlowe: I could make it my business.
Eddie Mars: I could make your business mine.
Philip Marlowe: Oh, you wouldn’t like it. The pay’s too small.
And his final farewell to the irascible Agnes
Agnes Lowzier: Well, so long, copper. Wish me luck. I got a raw deal.
Philip Marlowe: Hey, your kind always does.
And Bacall was the ultimate Hawksian woman. Hawks had practically invented Lauren Bacall out of Betty Joan Perske; putting her under exclusive contract and grooming her every step of the way, which could explain his bitterness towards her. Every scene between Bogart’s Marlowe and Bacall’s Vivian is pure magic to say the least, with Hawks and his writers providing them the ammunition
Vivian: What will your first step be?
Philip Marlowe: The usual one.
Vivian: I didn’t know there was a usual one.
Philip Marlowe: Well, sure there is. It comes complete with diagrams, on page 47 of ‘How to be a Detective in 10 Easy Lessons,’ correspondence school text-book and, uh, your father offered me a drink.
Vivian: You must’ve read another one on how to be a comedian.
Vivian: You go too far, Marlowe.
Marlowe: Those are harsh words to throw at a man, especially when he’s walking out of your bedroom.
After she married Bogart, Hawks washed his hands off Bacall , selling her contract to Warner Bros. He would try to create several versions of Bacall in his subsequent films, but with the exception of Angie Dickinson in Rio Bravo, nobody came close. But The Big Sleep endures as the ultimate testament to Hawksian filmmaking. It leaves you with the kind of high that one rarely experiences in films nowadays, simply because we don’t have that quality of filmmaking, writing, and above all movie stars, who can work that kind of magic. If nothing else, The film is an ultimate showcase to good old fashioned star power, and how it can triumph even the most convoluted and illogical of plots. Just take the very final scene of the film that brings Bogart and Bacall together: The scene is set in Geiger’s house. Eddie Mars is dead and Marlowe, who is alone with Vivian, telephones the Police. And as they wait for the police to arrive, Marlowe delivers a breathless monologue: where he mentions all the players in the puzzle (what each one’s role was in the mystery surrounding the Sternwood family and what happened\is going to happen to each of them) except Vivian.
Vivian: You’ve forgotten one thing – me.
Philip Marlowe: What’s wrong with you?
Vivian: Nothing you can’t fix.
we hear the sounds of the police siren in the background; Max Steiner’s score rises to a crescendo; Bogart lovingly grabs Bacall’s hand, and as as they look longingly into each others eyes, the screen fades to black.
Phew! absolutely exhilarating. When a film about corruption, perversion, pornography, blackmail and death leaves you thinking about love, you know you have seen a great film. To quote a line from the film itself, “they just don’t make them like that any more.”
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Shadows, lamps and criminal underworlds: Why film noir looks so cool
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What makes film noir so very cool? It’s the lighting of course! Here’s how the great Hollywood cinematographers used light to create dark movie magic (including a free Bluffer’s Guide to Talking About Film Noir)….
Film noir is the coolest of all movie genres, and the coolest film noir is the 1946 version of The Big Sleep.
It’s got every box ticked: Humphrey Bogart as a private detective, Lauren Bacall as a femme fatale, near-constant smoking and drinking, and the most ridiculously complicated plot of all time.
(In fact, the plot is so complicated that even the story’s author Raymond Chandler didn’t know what on earth was going on. During filming, director Howard Hawks asked Chandler whether one of the key characters had been murdered. Chandler revealed: “They sent me a wire asking me, and dammit I didn’t know either!“)
But film noir isn’t about the plots. It’s about style, and attitude, and mood…
What is film noir?
There’s no strict definition of ‘film noir’, but you know it when you see it. There are weird camera angles and menacing musical scores, oblongs of streetlight slicing through venetian blinds onto curls of cigarette smoke. Wisecracking criminals and racy innuendos. People talking in short sentences.
The Big Sleep has all that in spades. But the most important element of film noir mood is light. Mostly, the use of low-key lighting to create extreme silhouettes and dark shadows. Film noir directors use vivid light-and-shade contrasts to reveal more about a character’s true intentions than their words (if you want to impress your friends with the technical terms, see our Bluffer’s Guide below).
In The Big Sleep this is almost entirely done with lamps. There are lamps absolutely everywhere, and in virtually every scene: table lamps, floor lamps, desk lamps. They are used practically, stylistically and symbolically…
The many lamps of The Big Sleep
Whenever Bogart’s character Philip Marlowe enters a room it’s dark – because, obviously, he is investigating a shady criminal underworld. So the first thing he does is to turn on a lamp, shining his investigative light onto the scene – and when he exits the room he turns it off again, plunging us back into the black (see picture, top). The idea is that only Marlowe, coming and going, can illuminate this secretive world and glimpse the truth.
Sometimes, the light represents little islands of goodness surrounded by evil. In this scene the lamp at the top of the frame illuminates only the good characters, trapped in an enemy house, while all around them impending danger lurks in the darkness….
In other scenes, the turning off and on of a lamp indicates a character’s switch of mood or change of mind. Lauren Bacall is a complex, manipulative character, who alternates between lying and telling the truth. Mid-talking, she pauses and turns on a lamp – and you can almost see her brain’s cogs turning as she decides to change her tactics…
Yes, there are lamps galore in The Big Sleep – some very fine ones, too. This art deco beauty gets worked so hard that it should have won an Oscar for Best Supporting Furniture. Bogart simply can’t leave it alone – he turns it on whenever he makes a phone call to the cops (indicating returning to the world of the goodies)…
…and off again when he’s about to do something tricksy, like hide in a dark corner waiting to shoot someone…
…and he and Bacall stand in its light when they realise they’ve fallen for each other…
The funniest use of a lamp, though, occurs when Bogart is in a bar. He’s pondering what to do next, and just as he has an idea – aha! – the barmaid in the background turns on the light above his head. PING! A lightbulb moment!
So that’s The Big Sleep. On the surface, it’s something to do with blackmail and murder and in the end it turns out that everyone is guilty, like in every 1940s private detective film. But really, it’s all about the lamps.
That’s well worth dropping into the next conversation you have with a movie buff. And if you really want to impress them, here’s what you need to sound like an expert on film noir…
Film Noir – A Bluffer’s Guide
Film noir – There is no one single accepted definition of a film noir (French for ‘black film’), it’s really about a certain attitude. Film noirs typically feature seedy criminal underworlds; fast, wisecracking dialogue with lots of innuendo; cynical, world-weary men, and beautiful, amoral women. They use heavily stylised cinematography, particularly ‘low key’ lighting with contrasting dark and light shades.
The ‘classical period’ of Hollywood film noir ran through the 1940s and 1950s and was influenced by the German Expressionist films of the 1930s, particularly those of Fritz Lang. Lang’s M (1930) is considered the first film noir, while Double Indemnity (1944) starring Barbara Stanwyck as a scheming femme fatale is considered by many to be the first proper Hollywood noir.
Neo-noir –
Vivian Sternwood
The Femme Fatale
No American detective novel written in the thirties would be complete without the figure of the "femme fatale," a French term meaning deadly woman. A femme fatale is an irresistibly beautiful woman who uses her sexuality to seduce men and lure them into dangerous situations to serve her own selfish interests. There are a fair few of these in The Big Sleep, but none of them is quite the dynamo that Vivian turns out to be.
Vivian is the wife of Rusty Regan and the older sister of Carmen. She's just as much of a knockout as her kid sister, but in place of Carmen's blonde hair and slate-gray eyes, Vivian has dark, wiry hair and coal black eyes. Whereas Carmen comes off as the delicate, innocent type, Vivian looks strong and in control—like the classic femme fatales we've come to know and love:
She was worth a stare. She was trouble. She was stretched out on a modernistic chaise-lounge with her slippers off, so I stared at her legs in the sheerest silk stockings. They seemed to be arranged to stare at. They were visible to the knee and one of them well beyond. The knees were dimpled, not bony and sharp. The calves were beautiful, the ankles long and slim […] She was tall and rangy and strong-looking. […] She had a good mouth and a good chin. There was a sulky droop to her lips and the lower lip was full. (3.2)
Okay, let's go down the Femme Fatale Checklist. Irresistibly beautiful? Check. Seductive? Check. Trouble? Double check. Like her sister, Vivian knows how attractive she is to men and she isn't afraid to use her beauty to get what she wants. Halfway through the novel, Vivian even tries to seduce Marlowe by kissing him in the car after they leave Eddie Mars' club. All classic attributes of a femme fatale.
But as we mention in the Tough-O-Meter section, Chandler didn't want his novel to be just like any other cliché, predictable detective story. He wanted his characters to have psychological depth and complexity. So he wasn't about to make his female characters fit nice and neat into the standard convention of the femme fatale. So what does he do? He gives Vivian some recognizable features of the femme fatale (beauty, charm, seductiveness), but then he also makes her the protective sister and daughter, who's just trying to keep the family name clean.
Marlowe and Viv
The interactions between Marlowe and Vivian vary from petty fights to name-calling to potential romance. Marlowe doesn't seem to think very highly of Vivian, and does his best to resist her advances because he doesn't trust her. When they share a kiss, Marlowe admits his attraction to her, but due to his personal code of chivalry, he won't pursue a romance with Vivian since he's working on a case for her father.
On Vivian's end, it's more difficult to figure out her real feelings toward Marlowe. She's someone who is used to getting her own way, so she is both annoyed and impressed by Marlowe's ability to resist her wiles. She also seems to be hiding something, so we can't help but think that all the charm she showers on Marlow is really just her attempt to distract him from the case.
In the final pages of the novel, Marlowe discovers that Vivian had known all along that Carmen iced her husband. But instead of going to the authorities, Vivian paid off Eddie Mars to get rid of the body both to protect Carmen and to keep her father from finding out about Rusty's death. Why? Why defend her sister for murdering her husband? Is that sisterly love, or something more sinister?
According to the lady herself, "If dad knew, he would call them [the police] instantly and tell them the whole story. And sometime in that night he would die. It's not his dying—it's what he would be thinking just before he died. Rusty wasn't a bad fellow. […] He just didn't mean anything to me, one way or another, alive or dead, compared with keeping it from dad" (196).
It definitely sounds like Vivian genuinely cares about her father. So was it immoral of Vivian to try to cover up the murder or was she trying to protect her family from harm? On the one hand, she does mislead Marlowe by hiding the truth from him. But on the other hand, Vivian's desire to keep the General from finding out that Carmen killed Rusty seems to indicate that Vivian wants to protect her father's feelings. By portraying Vivian as a psychologically complex character, with shadowy motives, Chandler makes it impossible for us to define her one way or another.
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The Big Sleep
Leave A Comment Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take
If ever a movie screamed film noir from the moment its opening title sequence hits the screen, it's 'The Big Sleep.' Howard Hawks' deliciously complex and riveting adaptation of Raymond Chandler's classic detective novel opens with two silhouetted figures against a plain gray backdrop. The man lights the woman's cigarette and then his own. Following a puff or two, the camera zooms in on an ashtray, where the pair rests their smoldering butts, which continue to burn until the narrative begins. Not only does this sequence set the film's gritty, incendiary tone, it also promotes the sizzling sexual chemistry between the two leads, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who by the time of the picture's long-delayed release (more on that below) were more than just Hollywood's couple du jour - they were newlyweds.
The 44-year-old Bogart and his 20-year-old "baby" had just completed Hawks' 'To Have and Have Not' to great popular acclaim, so Warner rushed the duo into 'The Big Sleep,' which stands as the finest adaptation of Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels. A rumpled, cynical private detective whose quick wit and blunt assessments attract the ladies, enrage his adversaries, and land him in a heap of trouble, Marlowe has been ably played by Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery, and Robert Mitchum, among many others, but nobody eclipses Bogart, who masterfully merges the character's tough and tender aspects and laces them with an irresistible easygoing charm. Add Bacall's pouty insolence and smoky allure and - presto! - you've got cinematic magic.
'The Big Sleep' also boasts a screenplay co-written by William Faulkner (who would receive the Nobel Prize for literature five years later) and, more importantly, a plot widely considered to be one of the most intricate and confusing in film history. Rapt attention is required from the first frame to the last not just to follow the story, but to have even a prayer of connecting all the narrative dots. (And despite some views to the contrary, they really do connect.) Twists, turns, red herrings, murky motives, deceit, and tangled connections abound, and if you miss any information (usually recited with typical Hawks-ian alacrity by the superior cast), it's not likely to be repeated.
Every character, no matter how minor, is an essential cog in the wheel, and there are enough of them to make your head spin. Blink and you'll miss someone who winds up playing a pivotal role in the proceedings. Take it from me, try to instantly pin faces to names or you'll be hopelessly confused when other characters refer to people you've barely seen. And keep the remote handy, because frequent rewinding is required to maintain a grip on all the goings-on. Bogart biographer Alan G. Barbour wrote 'The Big Sleep' "defies comprehension in a single screening" and "even the film's stars complained that they didn't know what the whole thing was about either."
Encapsulating the plot would require far more space than I have here, so suffice it to say 'The Big Sleep' is a dark, sinister tale of blackmail and murder punctuated by plenty of action and more intrigue than the human brain can handle. General Sternwood (Charles Waldron), a wealthy, frail man confined to a wheelchair, hires Marlowe to deal with an extortionist who's got the goods on his wild-child daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers), a comely party girl who knows what she wants and won't be denied. Marlowe takes the case, but gets sidetracked by Carmen's "spoiled, exacting, smart, and ruthless" older sister Vivian (Bacall), who seems strangely obsessed with the disappearance of her father's right-hand man, Sean Regan. Of course the two threads soon intertwine, leading Marlowe into a web of lies, a den of danger, and a relationship with Vivian that might not be good for his health.
'The Big Sleep' is often a mesmerizing film experience, but its turbulent production history is equally fascinating and almost as complex as its story. At the time of filming in late 1944, Bogart and Bacall were at the height of their romantic involvement, although Bogart was still married to third wife Mayo Methot, who was more than reluctant to give him a divorce. According to studio memos, the "mental turmoil regarding his domestic life" drove Bogart to excessive drinking. He showed up drunk on more than one occasion during shooting, causing Hawks to be initially "dissatisfied" with his performance. In addition, extensive rewrites caused the production to fall behind schedule. 'The Big Sleep' was finally completed in January of 1945, but the impending end of World War II forced Warner Bros to delay its release in favor of more topical product already in the studio's pipeline that would soon lose its relevance.
One of those pictures was 'Confidential Agent,' a film Bacall made with Charles Boyer right after 'The Big Sleep' wrapped. The movie was a dismal failure, and critics widely lambasted Bacall's wooden portrayal. Her agent feared his young client's fledgling career might be irrevocably damaged, and urged Warner Bros to both beef up her role in 'The Big Sleep' and reshoot a couple of scenes that didn't show her off to her best advantage. The studio agreed, and in early 1946, a full year after production was completed, Hawks, Bogart, Bacall, and several members of the company returned to make the changes. As a result, two complete versions of 'The Big Sleep' exist (both of which are included on this Blu-ray disc). The story is just as layered and confusing in both versions (although the earlier edition contains a scene midway through that recaps the plot to catch up lagging viewers), but many differences distinguish them, and it's great fun to pick them out.
Hawks creates a marvelous noir mood in both versions, balancing tense moments and violent interplay with scenes of light comedy that humanize the characters. The Bogart-Bacall banter is both sexy and hard-boiled (the famous horse-racing exchange - one of the sequences added in 1946 - includes plenty of racy double entendres), but a host of fine supporting players also deliver terrific performances. Vickers is especially good as the trouble-making nymphet, and both 19-year-old Dorothy Malone as a seductive bookstore clerk and a young Elisha Cook, Jr. as a naive small-time hood make big impressions. Hawks knows how to get excellent work from his actors, and there's not a weakling in the bunch in this dog-eat-dog tale.
Detective junkies will love 'The Big Sleep,' but so will fans of taut thrillers, film noir, Golden Age classics, Howard Hawks, and - of course - Bogart and Bacall. Few pictures are so tightly wound and difficult to unravel, and stand up so well over repeat viewings. Though mental exhaustion is an unavoidable consequence of this oh-so-twisted yarn, the fatigue is accompanied by a heady feeling of exhilaration only the best motion pictures inspire.
The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats
'The Big Sleep' arrives on Blu-ray packaged in a standard case. Video codec is 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 and default audio is DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. Once the disc is inserted into the player, the static menu with music immediately pops up; no previews or promos precede it.
Video Review
All of the Blu-ray transfers released under the Warner Archive banner have been stellar, and 'The Big Sleep' is no exception. Terrific clarity and contrast distinguish the 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 rendering, and as a result, this absorbing film noir almost leaps off the screen. Grain is faint, but thankfully evident enough to add essential texture to the image and maintain the warm feel of celluloid, and not a nick, scratch, or mark sullied the pristine source material. Blacks are lusciously rich, and though many scenes take place at night, crush is rarely an issue. Shadow delineation is strong, and exceptional gray scale variance heightens details and enhances depth. Patterns are vivid and rock solid, and sharp close-ups highlight Bogart's rugged facial features and the glamour of Bacall, Martha Vickers, and Dorothy Malone. Once again, Warner produces a dazzling classic movie transfer that will thrill fans of film noir and Bogart and Bacall.
Audio Review
No hiss, pops, crackles, or distortion afflict the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, which supplies clear, well-balanced sound. Subtle ambient effects, such as rain and chirping birds blend seamlessly into the whole, while sonic accents like gunfire and fisticuffs are startlingly crisp. All the snappy dialogue is well prioritized and easy to comprehend, and a wide dynamic scale embraces all the highs and lows of Max Steiner's lush music score. Many mono tracks are dull and lifeless, but this effort from Warner is anything but, and it beautifully complements this engrossing and atmospheric film noir.
Special Features
Though not packed with supplements, this disc includes some rare and noteworthy material that immeasurably enhances the viewing experience. An audio commentary would have been a nice addition, as well as a retrospective featurette celebrating Bogart and Bacall, but their omission only mildly diminishes the appeal of this release.
1945 Alternate Version (SD, 116 minutes) - The pre-release version of 'The Big Sleep,' which reportedly was shown only to servicemen overseas, runs a scant two minutes longer than the final 1946 edition, but myriad and striking differences distinguish them. Though changes were invoked primarily to better showcase Bacall and play up her potent chemistry with Bogart, several other alterations were made (some scenes were cut, others added, and still others reworked) during the reshoot process, which took place a full year after principal photography had been completed. The 1946 version is generally regarded as superior, but the 1945 version plays exceptionally well. Included is a lengthy scene midway through that recaps the complicated plot and makes it easier to digest, but gone is the nightclub scene that features some of the best Bogart-Bacall banter. The 1945 version also contains a scene in which Bacall wears an unflattering tight black veil that makes her look like she's afflicted with chicken pox. Though presented in standard definition and featuring some print damage and reel-change markers, the 1945 version of 'The Big Sleep' is well worth watching in its entirety. It's just as entertaining as its 1946 counterpart, and it's fascinating to pick out all the subtle differences and major changes.
Introduction by Robert Gitt (SD, 1 minute) - One of the preservationists from the UCLA Film and Television Archive briefly explains how the two versions differ and sets up how the disc presents the material.
Featurette: "1945/1946 Comparisons" (SD, 36 minutes) - Gitt returns to meticulously analyze almost all the differences between the two versions. In addition to insertions and deletions, some scenes were reblocked or shortened (one even includes a different actress in a key role). This featurette is great for those seeking an organized, side-by-side overview of how each film is constructed, but viewer beware...some of the scenes are truncated, so if you want to see all the excised material from the 1945 version, you'll need to watch the entire film, which I recommend doing anyway.
Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2 minutes) - This re-release preview employs the gimmick of Bogart finding a copy of 'The Big Sleep' novel in the library and reading a few passages from it over a series of clips from the film. The brief trailer also touts the potent partnership of Bogart and Bacall, as well as the movie's rough-and-tumble nature.
Final Thoughts
'The Big Sleep' is without question one of the most intricately plotted and difficult-to-follow film noirs in Hollywood history, but its narrative complexities only add to this dark mystery's provocative and magnetic allure. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall once again rivet our attention, cementing their reputation as one of cinema's most appealing teams, and Howard Hawks' spicy, tough, yet elegant adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel contains enough snap, crackle, and pop to keep any classic movie maven transfixed from beginning to end. Warner Archive's Blu-ray presentation boasts superior video and audio transfers, as well as the rarely seen 1945 edition of the film and a lengthy featurette analyzing the differences between the two versions. If you sit up straight and pay close attention, you'll undoubtedly regard 'The Big Sleep' as one of Hollywood's great detective films and a fantastic showcase for Bogie and his baby. Highly recommended.
