The Big Sleep (1946)
Directed by Howard Hawks

Film Review

The Big Sleep has two great claims to fame.  Firstly, it is one of the best examples of American film noir, one of the few crime films to match the distinctive mood, poetry and stylistic brilliance of John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1942). Secondly, it is one of the most incomprehensible films ever made.  Even its director, Howard Hawks, had to admit that he didn't fully understand the plot.  When Hawks asked Raymond Chandler (the author of the book on which the film is based) to tell him who killed the chauffeur, Chandler said he had no idea.  This is, apparently, a film with a plot which no one is expected to unravel.

You would think that not being able to understand the plot would count against the film somewhat.  That would certainly be the case were it not for the fact that in just about every area other than narrative comprehensibility the film is virtually faultless.  Bogart may not portray Marlowe as convincingly as Dick Powell did in Murder, My Sweet (1944), but it is nonetheless a memorable performance, although it is the on-screen chemistry between Bogart and his real-life lover Lauren Bacall that sells the film. Parts of the film were re-shot shortly before its release to capitalise on the blossoming romance between the two stars.  Bogart and Bacall had previously appeared together in the earlier Howard Hawks film To Have and Have Not (1944) and would work together on a further two films.

The film's release was held back for about a year to allow Warner Brothers' backlog of war-related films to be released as WWII came to and end.  (There was a fear that the public would lose interest in war films once the war had ended.)  Michael Winner remade The Big Sleep in 1978, with Robert Mitchum, Oliver Reed and Sarah Miles.

Film Synopsis

General Sternwood hires private detective Philip Marlowe to investigate a bookseller named Geiger who appears to be blackmailing his daughter, Carmen.  Vivian, the general's other daughter, suspects that his real motive for engaging Marlowe is to try to find his friend, Sean Regan, who has mysteriously disappeared.  Marlowe soon finds Geiger's dead body, in a deserted house owned by Eddie Mars, whose wife has supposedly run off with Regan.  As the plot thickens, Marlowe notices that everyone, including Vivian, is suddenly keen for him to drop the investigation...