Dashiell Hammett made a career in the early parts of the 20th century churning out pot boil detective stories inspired by his time working for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency. One of these novels, The Maltese Falcon, became a popular film in the 30’s before becoming an even more popular film in 1941 starring Humphrey Bogart as a now clichéd private dick, Sam Spade. Naturally, success breeds imitation and many authors throughout the 30’s and later sought to create their own sleuths. Most would go forgotten to the annuals of the past but one in particular has managed to endure, Philip Marlow, a creation by Raymond Chandler. Marlow, in some respects, even manages to be more well known in modern circles than Sam Spade if for no other reason than a handful of films, TV and other media appearances that crop up to the modern day.
Philip Marlow’s on screen presence began, however, back in 1946 with what many would assume to be a Maltese Falcon rip off/homage and it doesn’t help that both films star Bogart in what can almost be considered the same character. There are some minor differences but they amount to little. What really separates the films is the script. The Maltese Falcon is easy to follow, doesn’t get bogged down in excess baggage and characters and never confuses the audience. The same cannot be said about The Big Sleep. Much of this can be faulted to the novel which is equally hard to follow, but the screenwriters job is to make it easy for the average movie goer to keep up with and in that aspect they failed.
The story begins with Philip Marlow (Bogart) being summoned to the mansion of General Sternwood about a matter of his daughter Carmen’s (Martha Vickers) “gambling debts’ to Arthur Geiger, debts that the General believes are actually requests for blackmail payments. Marlow advises the general to pay the money, then as he is leaving he is stopped by Vivian (Lauren Bacall), the general’s elder daughter who suspects an ulterior motive from her father for bringing in Marlow. Recently a man named Sean Regan, Sternwood’s protégé, disappeared mysteriously.
Marlow goes to Geiger’s shop but is stonewalled, eventually tailing the man to his residence where he hears a gunshot and a woman screaming. Investigating, he discovers Geiger has been killed and Carmen drugged. He also finds a hidden camera that is missing its film. After taking Carmen home he returns to find the body has been removed. The further Marlow digs into things, the more bodies turn up and he finds himself entangled in pornography, blackmail and more murders. The novel even included homosexuality, something that would have never passed the Hayes Code back in 1946.
The Big Sleep has a reputation for being overly confusing. Indeed it lives up to that reputation by throwing in so many characters and twists that it really needed a couple of data dumps to help some audience members catch up to the story. Modern audiences have an advantage over those from the 40’s. They can rewind, rewatch or even look up synopsis’s whenever the film glosses over a detail or two in such a way that it is easily missed. That being said, at no point does the film get so complex as to become uninteresting. Bogart sees to that with his wry humor and his ability to portray Marlow in such a way that we feel he is always one step ahead of everyone else. We get this sense early on when he is conversing with the general and it only strengthens throughout. Twice throughout the picture someone gets the upper hand on him but even then Marlow doesn’t feel like he’s out of his element, even if he gets a little rattled in the process.
Keeping pace with Bogart is the ever professional Lauren Bacall, here again starring opposite her soon to be husband. This would be their second pairing after To Have and Have Not. The heat between the two in that film has cooled some but is still very much there. Bogart was going through a messy divorce during this film and was very much in love with Bacall and it shows on screen. There scenes together are sometimes electrifying and help bolster the middle of the film. An earlier cut of the film was missing many of these moments which were added with reshoots to take advantage of the two’s on and off screen appeal. These scenes added more heat between Bogart and Bacall but also slowed the pacing down a little. Ultimately the differences between the two cuts is trivial and doesn’t make the action make any more sense to anyone not following the story with rapt attention.
Bogart rarely seems rattled no matter what he stumbles into. This also is much like the earlier Sam Spade character. That being said, Bogart is a tad more confident in this movie now that he is no longer a contract player and is instead a bona fide star. Sam Spade started that for him and Philip Marlow continues that transformation. There is more subtlety to this performance. What ultimately sinks it though is how difficult it is to follow everything that is going on. It’s not impossible to keep up, but this is not a film for the casual viewer. If you don’t give it your full attention you will be lost. There are times when it almost seems like Marlow is just showing up at places and things happen to further the mystery, yet if you are paying attention reasons are there, they are just not spelled out for you. It requires paying close attention to every little detail and having an ability to put two and two together with very little assistance from the screenplay.
Martha Vickers is a hoot as the younger daughter, Carmen, who finds herself being blackmailed and photographed in compromising pictures. Her opening scene practically falling all over Marlow is hilarious and over-the-top. Her performance gets dwarfed by the behind the scenes knowledge of what was going on between Bogart and Bacall but in retrospect it is an absolute delight to watch. She has a difficult role to pull off, playing both coy and childlike and also seductive and dangerous. She has to be believable as flirty and childish as well as capable of killing someone. Vickers dances that fine line and very nearly pulls it off. She is completely convincing as the younger daughter who has gotten herself in over her head with compromising pictures, spelled out much more explicitly in the novel than here, but when she shows up later with a gun it doesn’t play nearly as well. Towards the end when we are told she has actually killed someone in the past it doesn’t quite ring true.
The Big Sleep is long and complex. There are lots of characters to keep track of, lots of gears spinning to keep everything moving to the climax. For some this may be too challenging of a film to hold their interest for nearly two hours. What keeps it interesting is a stellar performance by Bogart and a slightly less stellar performance from Bacall, who is still showing her inexperience here. That is not to say she isn’t good here, just not quite at Bogart’s level. Still, when the two share the screen, the heat is palpable and, even if we aren’t always understanding what is going on, we can enjoy their presence together. The mystery itself is convoluted at times and even forgets to resolve certain points. This is a fault of the novel that the film doesn’t address. For instance, a chauffeur is killed early on, then who killed him never gets resolved. Raymond Chandler famously admitted that he completely forgot to pick up that plot point in his book. Whether deliberately or not, the same plot point goes unresolved here. That aside, the film can be followed if one is willing to give it their undivided attention. This is not the type of film you want to get up in the middle of at the theater and refresh your popcorn and snacks. At home you can pause it but at the theater if you miss even a couple minutes anywhere in it you will be lost. The film rewards you for paying close attention and punishes you if you let your mind wander.
Release Date: August 23, 1946
Running Time: 114/116 Minutes
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers
Directed By: Howard Hawks
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