Movie Review: The Big Sleep (1946)

The Big Sleep is an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s 1939 novel of the same name. It features one of the most famous PIs of film noir, Phillip Marlowe.

Writing a review of “The Big Sleep” has been challenging. Not only do I have to answer the question, if Bogart is the best Marlowe, I also need to compare “The Big Sleep” with itself! Let me explain what I mean by that statement.

For one thing, the plot is quite convoluted and will require your concentration. Second, when I reviewed Murder My Sweet, I said that this may be the best Marlowe movie ever. Apparently, I had overlooked this one. Lastly, it turns out that there were two versions of “The Big Sleep”. The first version was in 1945. It was a limited release, shown to the troops, who were fighting in the second World War. The second release was in 1945, where many scenes of the movie were re shot.

It is said that this was an attempt to resurrect the career of Lauren Bacall, Bogart’s love interest in the movie, who was also involved in an extra marital affair with him. (I try to avoid gossip, but I think it is relevant here.) The affair and the subsequent breakdown of Bogart’s marriage caused Bogart to drink excessively, creating problems for him and the director during the reshoot of the movie.

However, many critics (including my idol, Roger Ebert), felt that the studio had made the right decision in re-shooting the movie. The 1945 version found at the UCLA Film and Technical Archives was released to art houses and later in 2015, released along with the 1946 version, on Blu-ray.

So, have I changed my mind? Is this the best Marlowe movie? I’m not sure about that. Here we have an older, more mature Marlowe. Bogart is not as violent as Chandler’s description of Marlowe. although I did enjoy this one more. However, Dick Powell at 5’11” is closer to Chandler’s Marlowe, in description and attitude.

The plot begins when Marlowe has been invited into the mansion of General Sternwood. He is let in by the bultler and is accosted flirtatiously by the General’s younger daughter, Carmen. Marlowe meets the general in a torridly hot greenhouse. The greenhouse is kept that way for the General, who is ill and confined to it. He cannot drink or smoke.

The general tells Marlowe that both his daughters are wild, and out of control. He speaks of a man, Sean Regan whom he brought up as a son, who simply absconded. Reagan had helped the general earlier, when a man named, Joe Brody had tried to blackmail him.

The general wanted Marlowe’s help to get free from the demands of another blackmailer, Geiger who owned a rare book store. After the meeting, as Marlowe is about to leave the mansion, he meets with Vivian, the general’s older daughter. Vivian assumes that Marlowe has been hired to find Sean. Marlowe does not tell her that this is not the reason that he has been hired by the General.

Marlowe visits Geiger’s s bookstore, and meets a woman, who is hostile to Marlowe. She tells Marlowe that he cannot meet Geiger. Marlowe goes to another competing bookstore right across the street, and charms the woman in charge of that store.

Besides giving Marlowe a detailed description of Geiger, the woman gives Marlowe a drink (and possibly more.) She allows Marlowe to stay at the store, and wait there till after hours, and closely monitor Geiger’s store.

Later that evening, the two of them watch Geiger leave his store with another man, whom the woman describes, as ‘Geiger’s shadow’. Marlowe leaves the store and tails Geiger’s car, to a house. As he waits in his car, surveilling the house, another car stops by.

The evening gets darker. Soon Marlowe hears a scream coming from inside the house and then, there is the sound of two gun shots. Marlowe darts into the house, just as he sees Geiger’s and the other car leave the house. Marlowe enters the house through a window.

On the floor, is a corpse of Geiger. Geiger has been shot with a gun. He finds Carmen in an inebriated state and oblivious to the predicament she is in, and seated on a chair. Facing the chair is a statue where Marlowe finds a hidden camera. Someone seems to have emptied the film from the camera. In the 1945 version, he surveils the house and steals a duplicate key for the house from a keychain.

He finds a metal box and in it, finds an address book. Marlowe drops Carmen back at the General’s home. Here again, there are differences between the two versions. In the 1945 version, he drops her in the house with just the butler present, and tells the butler, not to reveal that Carmen left the house ,to anyone. In the 1946 version, Vivian is at home, and gives Marlowe a hand in putting her sister on a bed.

Marlowe returns to the house and find that Geiger’s corpse is missing. Marlowe returns to his home. Later that night, as he is reviewing the address book that he picked up from the house, he is visited upon by Bernie, his friend who is a police officer.

Upon Bernie’s request, Marlowe accompanies him on a drive, and watches the cops pull out a submerged limo from a canal. There is a body in it, that is identified as Owen Taylor, a driver of General Sternwood. The police believe that the death was an accident,

The following day, Marlowe visits the Geiger book store again. The hostile woman tells him to come back, the following day. At that time, Marlowe watches the man, identified earlier as Geiger’s shadow and another man leave the store.

Quickly, Marlowe leaves the store and follows the car the two men take, thanks to a friendly female taxi driver. Their car stops on a street and the men go inside a high rise building. Marlowe examines the names of the tenants of the building, inscribed on the mailboxes at the front door. One of the mailboxes has the name, Jim Brody on it. Jim Brody was the man who had once blackmailed the general.

The following day, Vivian comes to Marlowe’s office and tells him that she received a set of photos with compromising pictures of Carmen. Soon after this, Vivian claims that she received a call from a woman-blackmailer. The blackmailer wanted $5000 to ensure that copies of the photos were kept secret from the public.

Vivian tells Marlowe that she can get the money without her father’s help. She claims that she is friendly with Mars, a gangster and gambler. Sean, she tells Marlowe ran away with Mars’s wife. Marlowe begins to get himself deeper in the case which is a now a puzzle with more pieces. This movie was known for its complex plot. There are plenty more twists for Marlowe to unravel, before he solves this case.

Bogart’s Marlowe is older and more mature, and less aggressive than the Marlowe played by Dick Powell. While not as brash as Spade, in the Maltese Falcon, Bogart still has his swagger, making him imposing, despite his small frame and medium height. Chandler described Marlowe as a six foot, heavily built man who could sweep any woman off her feet. Bogart’s Marlowe does the same with his personality.

The main difference between the two versions of this movie, is that in the later, there is a lot more interaction between Marlowe and Vivian. This is probably to give fodder to the tabloids, about Bogart’s and Bacall’s relationship. I have included a link in the references, that provides more details on the differences between the two versions.

I would recommend the 1946 version, if you choose to watch only one. ‘The Big Sleep’ is another great film noir movie, and makes its place in several top film noir lists from critics.

Cast: Humprey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Sonia Darrin

Director: Howard Hawks