The Big Sleep | | Cast : | Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall | | Director : | Howard Hawks | | Studio : | Warner Studios | | Format : | Black & White | | Released Date : | August 31, 1946 | | DVD Released Date : | June 01, 2004 | | Language : | French (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | NR (Not Rated) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 21, 2005 | | Summary | Very confusing! | Content
 | First let me say that I saw the original uncut 1945 version instead of the theatrical 1946 version. I'm kind of glad I did. I think the 45 version is a little less confusing. The acting in this movie is top notch but what else would you expect from Bogart and Bacall. Bogart is especially good in this film and their chemistry is very natural. The direction is good, it is shot well, and the dialogue is very good! My problem with "The Big Sleep" is that it is very hard to follow. There are an awful lot of characters and names to remember and throughout the movie it's not glaringly clear which "rackets" everybody's in. You don't know why, they're considered shady characters. Also most of the answers just seem to come to Marlowe with very little reasoning.
I also really don't understand why this is considered "noir". It doesn't have many of the characteristics used to define noir. I made the accidental mistake of watching the remake with Robert Mitchum first which is a horrible movie. So I found myself unable to not compare the original to the remake. It did however make it slightly easier to understand. All in all I think this is a good movie and a must see for any Bogey fan. As I said before I think this is some of his best work. The acting gets 5 stars the story gets 3 1/2.
Also I think the DVD is very good quality! I see nothing wrong with the transfer other than the sound is a little low. All you have to do is turn the volume up. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 19, 2005 | | Summary | Great iconic rendering of classic man-woman dynamics | Content
| Some great scenes between Bogart and Becall that illustrate confident ritual sparring between men and women approaching each other for love. Very interesting to compare this material with the famous passages in Have and Have Not, which records their relationship forming, with incredible chemisty on the screen.
The "making of" is also great. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 07, 2005 | | Summary | Marlowe, Two Sisters & Their Friends. | Content
| "The Big Sleep" (1946) is the archetype of Film Noire genre with one of the best cast of actors and actress that may be reunited!
The story starts with Private Investigator Philip Marlowe being summoned to Gen. Sternwood's mansion.
Before meeting his would-be patron, Marlowe stumbles with the General's younger daughter and a brisk dialog is established. This kind of exchanges will be a trait of the film.
Sternwood asks Marlow to solve a blackmail issue he is suffering due to faux-pas given by his daughter Carmen.
When Marlowe is leaving the manor he is convoked by Vivian the elder daughter and a bristle colloquy ensues.
From that point on Marlowe will be involved in a complex investigation with crimes, foul fights, car races, double-crosses and all the typical occurrences of the genre.
The two sisters and their friends supply an intriguing puzzle until movie's end.
Playacting is brilliant: first of all Humphrey Bogart is unforgettable fleshing Marlowe, showing his internal ethical codes, ability and endurance with great shrewdness.
Lauren Bacall fleshes Vivian Sternwood with finesse, mixing high-nosed attitudes with charming seductiveness.
John Ridgely as Eddie Mars, Martha Vickers as Carmen Sternwood, Bob Steele as Lash Canino and Elisha Cook as Harry Jones are very good.
Special mention must be done for almost cameo performance delivered by a very charming Dorothy Malone.
Finally, I attribute the numerous sparkling dialogues to William Faulkner participation in screenplay writing.
Film Noire lovers and general public will enjoy this treasure!
Reviewed by Max Yofre. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 26, 2005 | | Summary | A Complicated 1944 Film Noir: A Classic and One of The Best | Content
| This film is the second Bogart-Bacall film of the four that they made together. The others are To Have and Have Not, Key Largo, and Dark Passage. It was made in approximately 1944, and released a few years later after extra editing and additions in 1946. It features Bogart playing private detective Phillip Marlowe, Bacall with a co-starring role, excellent directing by Howard Hawks, and numerous beautiful 1940s Los Angeles film noir touches. All of the four Bogart-Bacall films are are excellent, but this is the only one of the four that is set in Los Angeles - and as a result it has the best film noir ambiance of those particular four movies.
The movie is available in VHS and on DVD. Curiously, the VHS version is the 1946 final cut while the present DVD is the 1944 version. The DVD has many extras including scenes from the 1946 version. In some ways the present DVD 1944 movie is a more faithful reproduction of the book by Raymond Chandler. The 1946 version has a number of embellishments added to showcase the talents of Bacall. Jack Warner thought that these additions would improve the box office sales plus he wanted to clear his inventory of WW II movies before releasing the film. See for example the biography Bogart by Jeffrey Meyers - a book that I recommend.
Without getting into the plot in detail, the plot is very similar but not identical to the book. The movie does not have the attempt on Phillip Marlowe's life, a shooting at the end. It is missing from the movie. When the movie was made, Chandler the book's author had become a famous writer, and Chandler had just become famous for the movie Double Indemnity where he co-wrote the screenplay with Billy Wilder at Paramount. Chandler and Wilder were nominated for an Oscar for writing. In any case, Chandler was under contract at Paramount and not available to write the screenplay for The Big Sleep, so Warners used William Faulkner, Brackett, and Furthman to create a screenplay.
Chandler is famous for highly detailed writing with that film noir feel. That theme is present in the movie with the LA Gothic architecture, smooth coupe cars, and a rainy night in LA. The latter is a Chandler trademark from his novels and the movie Double Indemnity. He is supposedly weak on plots, famously so, and considers those secondary to all the nuances of the film noir ambiance and the lines spoken by the characters - or the prose in his books. Actually that is a bit of a myth and only this present book TBS has a complicated and slightly opaque chandler plot. For that reason the killer of the chauffer is left up in the air - not even Chandler knew that answer - so do not be frustrated too much by the plot. You are not alone. The story goes that director Hawks cabled Chandler for a clarification in the middle of filming: "who ... killed Sternwood's chauffer?" Chandler cabled back: "NO IDEA". Even he did not know. This is from the Chandler biography by Tom Hiney - a book that I do not recommend.
Bogart is at or near his prime here, just a few years after Casablanca and he gives a very strong performance and sets the bar for this type of movie. It is a coming together of Warner's top actor and tough guy Bogart with his dynamic partner Bacall, and with the brilliant detective mystery writer Raymond Chandler, plus the screenplay and novel writer Faulkner, all under the direction of Hawks in the Warner's slick film factory production - a potent combination by any measure in film history. Personally, I thought Bogart was almost perfect for the part, but his character Phillip Marlowe is a heavy drinker and womanizer, something that is a bit different for Bogart on screen but more like Bogart off screen. Most of his characters are sober straight shooters, be it a DA or a criminal. Still he carries the part and the writer Chandler thought he was ideal - again from the biography by Tom Hiney.
There is a final scene in which one of the villains is killed, and Bogart gets a chance to summarize the plot in a conversation with Bacall, playing the older Sternwood daughter, Vivian. That conversation clears up a lot of the mystery surrounding the plot, but not all. There are two or three sub plots and the book is a bit clearer and more explicit; here in the movie, the 1940s censors influenced what could be said about the the other plots so that adds to the confusion. Chandler's books were considered to be on the cutting edge in their day, and many fine points of the crimes and social issues could not get past the censors, and the fim itself was banned in some countries including Sweden, and had to be edited for Canadian release.
5 star classic black and white Bogart-Bacall film noir movie that can be viewed many times. The DVD is excellent and has some good extras. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 04, 2005 | | Summary | Sets the Bar for Coolness | Content
| The Big Sleep is so cool, it doesn't even need a plot. Even Raymond Chandler freely admitted the story made no sense when followed logically. Who cares? Its mostly just an exercise for Bogie and Bacall to strut their stuff. Plenty of tough talk, great one liners, sultry dames and pistol waving. Noir with class and sense of humor. |
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