THE BIG SLEEP_
US, 116 minutes (director’s cut), Black and white.
Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, Peggy Knudsen, Regis Toomey, Charles Waldron, Elisha Cook Jr.
Directed by Howard Hawks.
The Big Sleep has become a Hollywood classic. This is for many reasons – one of which is that many people cannot follow the plot. Yet, it still intrigues people who are entertained by film noir.
The film has excellent credentials. It was directed by Howard Hawks who had proven himself a strong director with a range of genres including Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby. He was to make a number of classic westerns including those with John Wayne as(**??) Red River and Rio Bravo. He also made Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
The film is based on a Raymond Chandler novel with the celebrated private detective, Philip Marlowe. Novelist William Faulkner worked on the screenplay.
Humphrey Bogart is Philip Marlowe. Marlowe had been portrayed on screen several years before by Dick Powell in Murder My Sweet and was to be portrayed by George Montgomery in The Brasher Doubloon and Robert Montgomery in The Lady in the Lake. Later incarnations of Philip Marlowe include James Garner in Marlowe and, more famously, Robert Mitchum in a remake of Farewell My Lovely as well as a remake of The Big Sleep.
Bogart is teamed with Lauren Bacall whom he had met on the set of Hawks’s To Have and Have Not. They married and were to appear in a number of films together including Key Largo and Dark Passage. A young Dorothy Malone also appears.
The film focuses on General Sternwood and his concerns about his daughter’s gambling debts, her links with blackmailing gangsters. Marlowe goes on the trail and one lead leads to another with enormous complications of who’s who and who is doing what to whom. However, it is the style and manner of the film which intrigues audiences, the characterisations, the chemistry between Bogart and Bacall – and all being sorted out, somewhat, in the end.
The 1997 remake by Michael Winner was a star-filled film including James Stewart as General Sternwood and with Sarah Miles, Joan Collins, Edward Fox, John Mills and Oliver Reed.
1. How good a thriller was this? How well did it use the thriller convention? Which were used particularly well? Not well?
2. How obvious was this a film of the mid-40s? Its atmosphere, the style and impact of the stars? Raymond Chandler and his Marlowe character?
3. Comment on the atmosphere of toughness in films like this. The accompanying black and white photography, music, editing styles? Was this a good murder mystery? How clear was the mystery? How confused? Did audiences find it easy or difficult to Allow? Did this affect its impact?
4. Comment on the film’s continual focus on Marlowe. The importance of Humphrey Bogart and his style? The fact that the film concentrated on Marlowe and saw things from his point of view? Marlowe as a private eye, the status and mystique of private eyes?
5. How well explored was the character of Marlowe? As a detective, as sure of himself, as doing his job , able to be hired out, relentless and tough, shrewd? His good points, his limitations? His ability in solving the case? Audience sharing the limits of his knowledge?
6. How mysterious a character was Vivian? the impact, style of Lauren Bacall? Her role in the plot, her role in the impact on the audience? The exploration of her growing relationship with Marlowe? Her involvement in the murders? The sequence in the night club, the gambling, her change, her willingness to help Marlowe? A portrayal of a typical femme fatale?
7. How interesting was the portrayal of Carmen? The erratic, baby-like behaviour, the mixed up voters, her involvement in the plot? The truth?
8. Norris as a villain? The suave style, the pressures he exerted, his henchman. the atmosphere of gambling, the brutality of his death? Was he a character or merely a conventional villain for this kind of film?
9. Comment on atmosphere of American criminals and toughs at this time. The type of American world of low life? The basis of good and evil for judging this world?
10. How did the characters of Jones and of Agnes add to the plot? The themes? The world of criminals and of good and evil? The pathos of Jones’ death?
11. How violent was this film? Appropriately? The number, nature and styles of deaths? Why is this film considered classic?
