Review of The Big Sleep (1946) by Devon B — 11 Dec 2009

Challenging and complex (with a screenplay co-written by William Faulkner), the interwoven storyline of director Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" is classic crime noir at it's most epic.

Humphrey Bogart stars as Philip Marlowe, a shamus who winds up in the thick of a murder cover-up and blackmailing scheme. I don't think anyone does a private eye quite like Bogie; he never overplays the tough guy aspect of his character (unlike alot of other film detectives of that era), and he's confident without being indestructible.

When Marlowe gets into trouble, there's a sense that he might be getting in over his head. Things seem simple enough at first: a wealthy but dying retired general hires him to deal with some blackmailers who have some dirt on one of his wild daughters (the general is a strange character himself, Marlowe finds him sitting in a hothouse wrapped in layers of clothes in the stifling heat).

The elder daughter, who has problems of her own, points him towards an "exotic books" dealer (it's suggested the store is a front for an illegal pornography ring), whom he tails home. Marlowe finds the daughter's hands are more than just a little dirty when he finds her drugged up and alone with the book dealer's dead body on the floor.

The story only gets more complicated from here, and I won't go into any more detail, suffice it to say there's little screen time devoted to exposition. All the women in the film, from Lauren Bacall and Martha Vickers to Sonia Darrin, are beautiful and sexual (for a film made in the 40s, there's plenty of innuendo).

Also for a film made in the 40s, there's alot of intelligence behind the characters. Motives aren't always stated implicitly, things more often than not are implied or left soley to the viewers own interpretation.

The Big Sleep easily ranks with the other Bogart classics, Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon as one of the top films of all time and one of the best of its genre.