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| Carmen, Mars, and Marlowe in a scene from The Big Sleep. The Oriental bust at left had a camera in it to take blackmail pictures. |
I’m currently teaching a course called Evil in Literature
and we just finished Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely. Instead of Mitchum’s 1970s version of Philip Marlowe, I decided to give the students Humphrey Bogart’s take on
the character. The Big Sleep was
directed by Howard Hawks, with a script by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and
Jules Furthman. Although filmed during the war, scenes were added to beef up
Lauren Bacall’s part to play off of the 1944 success Bogart and Bacall had with
To Have and Have Not. The film was released in 1946.
Bogart, for me, is one of the best of the Philip Marlowes. Small, wise-cracking,
glib, a man that women are attracted to in spite of a face that few would call
handsome but with a personality and smile that makes you forget it. He has a film charisma which makes his both likeable and watchable. His repartee
with Bacall plays well and shows a sexual tension that doesn’t always show
itself with cast members in relationships beyond their picture. (Bogart and
Bacall were married in 1945.)
The film, a great example of 1940s film noir, begins with wheelchair-bound
millionaire General Sternwood hiring Marlowe to track down a blackmailer (rare
book dealer A.G. Geiger) who has some major I.O.U.s from Sternwood’s younger
daughter, Carmen (Martha Vickers), who we meet when Marlowe arrives. An old friend of Marlowe’s,
Sean Regan, has disappeared and the General’s older daughter Vivian (Bacall, described
as “spoiled, exacting, smart, and ruthless”) asks him to find him. The general
says of his daughters,“I assume they have all the usual vices besides
those they invented on their own.”
Marlowe eventually follows Carmen to Geiger’s home where he
sits outside while Geiger is shot after taking compromising pictures of
Carmen Sternwood. Marlowe finds the body and Carmen in a drugged state. Returning Carmen back to the Sternwood mansion, Marlowe returns to Geiger's and finds the body missing. Soon a character named Eddie Mars (John Ridgely), owner of
a gambling club, appears as owner of Geiger's house. We are led to believe that Mars’ wife had run off
with Sean Regan.
As always in Chandler’s books, the plot gets more and more
complicated, with everybody producing a gun, several characters being shot, one
character being poisoned, Marlowe being told to lay off his search, Vivian and
Marlowe heavily flirting and kissing, lots of women throwing themselves at Marlowe, drinks, and ubiquitous cigarettes. The
whole plot and repartee is enjoyable, as is all the period detail, true for 1945, but wonderfully kitch for today. [For example, I can't think of many movies with scenes of a female taxi driver. Period gas ration stickers appear in the car windows. Bacall even sings a 1940s song for us.] Watching the period décor of Fred M.
MacLean and the classy suits and gowns of Leah Rhodes gives for me a much closer
rendition of the period described by Chandler than the nostalgic grunge of
Mitchum’s Farewell, My Lovely.
In all, it becomes a very enjoyable 1 hour-54
minutes.
If you haven’t seen it in a long time or if you haven't ever seen it, you can find the film on
Amazon Instant Video Rental.
The Big Sleep (1946) ****
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