189. The Big Sleep (1946)

Directed By Howard Hawks

Synopsis

This is a hard synopsis to make... basically Marlowe is sent to investigate a blackmail case involving two pretty rich girls, their elderly father, pornographers, old book dealers, gamblers and stuff.

Review

There is something to be said about Bogart-Bacall films and it is definitely what has made them immortal: those two have chemistry. I do think, however that that chemistry and their legend has kind of over-inflated the reputation of the films.

Don't get me wrong the film is great, but I've seen Hawks do better films such as Only Angels Have Wings, but these are the films he is most remembered by. The plot of this film is fascinating in its amount of twists, but that is also its downfall, it becomes slightly dull after a while, you already know there is a twist after every five minutes, so it never has as much impact as it could have, if they were better dosed.

The dialogue is great, however, and that is typical of Hawks' films, making his women tough and the dialogue snappy. And he does both expertly here. So really a film worth watching, but it didn't knock me off my feet.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:


* The author of the novel, Raymond Chandler, claimed that Martha Vickers gave an incredible performance as Carmen Sternwood, so much so that she completely overshadowed Lauren Bacall in her scenes. Unfortunately, this led the powers that be to edit the film in such a way that much of Vickers' performance ended up on the cutting room floor.

* Although Martha Vickers plays Lauren Bacall's younger sister, in reality she was only eight months her junior.


* The henchmen Sidney and Pete are named as a tribute to Bogie's frequent costars Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

* The film was made during the age of censorship, wherein certain points were expected to be able to be picked up by the adult audience but missed by children. The sort of books that Geiger rents quite profitably are mentioned in the book as pornography, which at the time was illegal and associated with organized crime. The photograph of Carmen wearing a "Chinese dress" and sitting in a "Chinese chair" is also supposed to allude to this.

* Joe Brody is killed by Carol Lundgren who believes he killed Geiger. In the book Lundgren and Geiger are homosexual lovers. This is not mentioned in the film.

* In the novel Marlowe finds pornographic photos of Carmen and later on discovers her naked in his bed, but sends her packing. In the film, there is no suggestion of nudity: the photos merely show that Carmen was at Geiger's house at the time of his murder. In the bedroom scene she is shown awaiting Marlowe fully clothed, sitting in his armchair.


Trailer: