Review of The Big Sleep (1946) by Veronique K — 06 May 2008

"the big sleep" is howard hawks' well-exerted star vehicle for humprey bogart and lauren bacall who have formed their sizzling chemistry in "to have and have not"..but hawks also has a crush on bacall who prefers the elder bogart, so this trio causes great tension on the production set since hawks is sour that bacall, whom he catapults to stardom and whom he looks forward having a fling with, has been captivated by the embrace of humprey bogart who is also having nuisance with his divorce then. so naturally the trio has been messed by their own private affairs but what makes "the big sleep" function so wonderfully, the sheer romantic flame ignited in the private lives of its major stars, bogart and bacall.

Bogart is now philip marlowe, another detective hero by ramon chandler who also creates the mythical sam spade in bogart's "maltese falcon" which contributes to his stardom after a decade of obscurity as small-time mugs on screen. marlowe is now dealing with general sternwood's willful daughter's misdemeanors which involve murders of jealous and mobster entrapment, meanwhile marlowe falls in love with another sternwood's daughter vivien (bacall) who attempts to save her trampy sis at any cost by aloofly dealing with gambling crooks herself, interfered by marlowe who is determinated to set the records straight completely for her even he has been beaten up, blackmailed and also risks his life for it.

Let's put it this way, the best pleasure of watching "the big sleep" is not really about how intriguingly the plots develop but seeing humprey bogart flirt with several females, from the two sternwood daughters to bookstore woman clerk who sheds off her spectacles to lure bogart and the female taxi driver who volunteers to be "his girl" then tosses a business card to him with a hint that "i'm more available at night" then bogart hands a generous tip "sugar, it's some for you to buy candies"...of course, the shrew bogart trully desires would be lauren bacall who mocks his "un-impressive height" in the beginning defyingly while bogart bombards her back insolently as well. then she's impressed with his reluctance to flatter her after our big man teaches her a lesson to be good!

There're numerous classic dialogues of sexual connotations which are gonna set records at cinematic history...one about the horse races, and how she enjoys watching him racing in the front and he wanna take the helm to bridle her. one scene in her bedroom while he suppresses her hand from slapping him and the lightening strikes outside the window, "i don't like to get rough at this time of night" "you're going too far, marlowe" "it's harsh word to throw at a man while he's walking out of your bedroom"....the most titilating one would be their kiss in the car with bacall exclaiming "oh! do it again! I like it!!"...even moments like her sitting on his desk, trying not to scratch her knee, being detected by him "go ahead and scratch it, I don't mind!", it's full of witty humor, then she walks over the doorway, confused by how to open the latch then looks back at him suspiciously "oh that was not intentional!" marlowe's office's door is sorta designed to halt clients who just wanna hurry to escape interrogation which also happens in "murder, my sweet".

Whether bogart is suitable as philip marlowe is not an revelent issue since he has a personality bigger than life, and he's merchandising his machismo flick by flick, with his wisecracking sarcasm, romantic gallantry to acquire the hearts of beautiful dames despite he ain't massive. even bogart literarily plays it directly with the lines delivered just like his own words, sassy, sneering and uncompromisingly tough. in a brief, his charisma is too idiocyncratic to be obliterated by the roles he takes, so every role bogart plays feels just similiarly like bogart. despite bogart and bacall only utter love in one scene on the car, but that could be magnified into a thousand times since you could tell he's pulling everything off just for her sake, he could spend 200 out of his 500 salaries just to buy off the information which is gonna get her out of this corrupted deal. as he's hectic to instruct her how to handle the crime aftermath, she askes "how about me?" "so, how about you?" "nothing you could fix" while the police siren rings its signal approaching.

Plus. elisha cook jr. from "maltese falcon" also appears here as a romantic sap to enhance the "tough guy with a soft center" concept in this flick that tints "the big sleep" with more gentle hues while men are ballsy bravados who rescue their women from the clasping thorns.