Visiting Film Noir: The Big Sleep

1946 Film Noir

From Warner Bros

Directed by Howard Hawks

Starring

Humphrey Bogart

Lauren Bacall

Martha Vickers

Dorothy Malone

John Ridgley

Regis Toomey

Sonia Darrin

Peggy Knudsen

Charles Waldron

Bob Steele

Elisha Cook Jr.

Louis Jean Heydt

Joy Barlowe

Theodore von Eltz

In the film noir sweepstakes there is always a little shoulder-nudging for the position of the best one ever.  I think an awful lot of noir lovers would list this as number one and if a checklist were being done of noir staples, this film undeniably would check off every one of them.  It may not be my favorite but to not include it in my top five of the all-time great noirs is unthinkable.  This is noir at its pedigreed best. 

It is based on the novel by Raymond Chandler, the creator of the Philip Marlowe character.  Novelist William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthmann handled the screenplay but don't think for a moment that Hawks's typewriter wasn't rat-a-tat-tatting as well.

Chandler, though excellent at detective fiction and an occasional screenwriter himself, elected to not join in that process for the film.  It wasn't unusual in those days for a famous novelist to step in to write or cowrite a screenplay, usually because they needed the money and usually hated working at Hollywood studios.  

  

 

One of the beautiful things about this screenplay is that nearly every scene plays like a little movie.  There is a beginning, middle and end with tension, crackling dialogue and skillful acting.  You know when scenes are picked for movie trailers, only the best are wanted so that the public is easily lured.  This film could use any scenes for that purpose... so perfect they all are.  

It's been said the story is about the process of a criminal investigation, not its results.  Private investigator Philip Marlowe (Bogart) is hired by a millionaire invalid, General Sternwood (Waldron), to unravel why he is being blackmailed and by whom.  What is known is that it has something to do with the gambling debts of his wild, youngest daughter Carmen (Vickers).  The older daughter Vivian (Bacall), or Mrs. Rutledge as she's called, initially does all she can to get in Marlowe's way.

Mind games with Martha Vickers

The film opens as Marlowe is ringing the front doorbell at the Sternwood estate.  After the butler answers, Marlow is greeted by Carmen, sucking her thumb and not unlike a 20-year old Lolita.  You're not very tall, are you? she purrs to him.  I try to be comes his answer.  A bit later when he's explaining to the snotty Mrs. Rutledge about meeting Carmen, he says she tried to sit on my lap and I was standing up.  Marlowe solves the blackmailing issue fairly quickly but throughout the film just when one situation is resolved, another pops up.  There is never a slow moment in the nearly two-hour film and it doesn't take long to be knee-deep in corpses.

Marlowe discovers that a bookstore owner, Arthur Geiger (von Eltz), is behind the blackmail.  Soon he is shot and killed.  Then the Sternwood chauffeur is killed.  Then a former Sternwood Joe Brody (Heydt) is involved but is also murdered.  The brains behind most of the unsavoriness is Eddie Mars (Ridgley), who runs a gambling joint, and he, too, is murdered as are a couple of thugs who work for him.

Two characters are mentioned several times, Sean Regan and Owen Taylor, and we never meet either of them.  While Mrs. Rutledge was initially wary of Marlowe, as the story moves forward she becomes an ally and more involved with him in sorting out the details.

There are so many threads to pull together in this caper and it's not so easy doing it.  In true noir fashion this is an 

extremely complex plot that is confusing.  People have said it from the time the film was first released and they still do but the odd thing is that it's never seemed to matter.  The screenplay does not answer every question and in fact leaves a death unsolved.

While we're trying to fill out the scorecard and keep track of the nefariousness, there is all that simmering sexual tension that keeps things moving along as it does in most noirs.  Vickers gets us started with her pouty sexuality and insouciance under a haze of substance abuse.  Being rich, privileged and rudderless, one is not surprised that she falls in with a bad crowd.

Hawks, in fact, wanted to make Marlowe more sexually aware, somewhat out of necessity perhaps so that he doesn't appear as a boob when dealing with the hot-to-trot Carmen.  Hawks's answer was to imbue all his female characters with a decided sexuality and to allow Marlowe to respond with some great lines.

We don't learn why Bacall is Mrs. Rutledge.  She is either widowed or divorced although we don't know which.  She is a strong woman, not weak like the sister she is determined to protect.  And to what extent?  What is she up to, really?  Bacall is undeniably sexy and her banter and bating with Bogart released the dopamine in my brain. 

When one loves noir as much as I do, one is grateful for all those traits generally associated with the genre.  Every noir does not have every trait but The Big Sleep seems to have them all.  In addition to the confusion and the sexual games, it's moody, tough, paranoiac, pessimistic, menacing and deliciously cynical.  It's not an accident that most every character is a smartass.

There's the private eye and the cop (Toomey).  In this instance, they're buddies.  Noirs are famous for having a bad girl and here there are more than one. 

Of course, there is that noir look... the atmospheric lighting, the shadows and faces obscured in shadows and the dark, wet streets.  The Big Sleep offers it all. 

After 1944's To Have and Have Not, which was Bacall's sizzling film debut, the public clamored for another movie with her and Bogie.  Hawks couldn't have agreed more since he directed that film and had Bacall under personal contract. 

All tied up in and out of character

Jack Warner, head of the studio, asked Hawks if he had any plans for a followup movie and the director responded that he and his buddy Faulkner had been thinking about Raymond Chandler's 1939 detective novel, The Big Sleep.  Warner responded that he had been considering buying the novel for several years but was put off by its sordid plot points like porn, homosexuality, nymphomania, police corruption and an unpunished murder not to mention how confusing the story is.  It was considered too daunting of a censorship problem.

Not to worry, Hawks decreed.  They could have a screenplay ready in a couple of months and the film could be completed by early-mid 1945.  Warner, titillated by the combo of Hawks, Chandler, Bogart and Bacall, bought the property. 

Hawks was famous for buying books and ofttimes keeping nothing but the title.  But in this case he did like much of what Chandler wrote and wanted much of it in the screenplay.  He eliminated the homosexuality and police corruption.  He kept but downplayed the porn and nymphomania, both involving the younger sister, Carmen.  Yes, there would be some racy photos that figured prominently in the plot but Hawks felt he could get it by the censors (and he was right).  Nymphomania may be too strong of a word for what we saw but randy Carmen could have used a cold shower.

While Bogart's Philip Marlowe is the main character and is in virtually every scene of the movie, the writer's instructions were to beef up Bacall's role to make her a true love interest and to have the pair lovey-dovey at fadeout.  

Behind the scenes Hawks was having problems with his two stars.  Bogart was still married to his battling, alcoholic third wife, Mayo Methot, who was getting testier knowing that he and Bacall were getting too cozy in their second film together.  Bogie was often stressed out, drinking too much and took off a number of sick days.  At one point he told Bacall he was going to give his marriage another try which sent her into a tailspin.  

Warner saw the film at a preview and felt it came off as a B flick with lackluster stars and still too much confusion.  He also felt Bacall had little of the magic she had in their first film together.  So the writers and Hawks went back to their typewriters again and changed around a fair amount.  They called back some of the principal actors and reshot a number of scenes.

Hawks had sold Bacall's contract to WB and she had a new and very powerful agent in Charles K. Feldman.  He was distressed when he saw the film (with its new changes) and felt his client had not been well-served or able to do what she's good at.  It was bigger than that.  In between the two Bogart films, Bacall starred opposite Charles Boyer in Confidential Agent.  She was clearly miscast as an English rose and the critics savaged her.

The director and his stars

Do you want bury her, Feldman offered.  Warner was listening.  A brand new star, exciting in her debut, and then shown poorly in her next two films... is this what you want, Jack, Feldman said.  Feldman said the film needed 3-4 new scenes with Bacall showing that insolent and provocative behavior she displayed in To Have and Have Not. 

Bogart and Bacall married after the original shooting was completed.  When the final version of it was released, the public went crazy for it... and them.   I expect most folks would say of their four films together, their first showcased them best.  But for the film itself, I see The Big Sleep as their best.  It has become an American classic... a perfect match of writing, directing and acting.

The critics also hailed it as something special.  Sure they and the public yammered about the confusion but few came away saying it ruined the film.  Hawks himself said his work on this film triggered a shift in his approach to filmmaking, leading to more leisurely, loosely-plotted films in which character development and individual scenes take precedence over narrative coherence.  About The Big Sleep he said I never figured out what was going on but I thought the basic thing had great scenes in it and it was great entertainment.  I'm not going to worry about being logical again. 

Hawks was a superior director, one of the Hollywood elite.  Interestingly he never won an Oscar considering he steered such legendary films as Scarface, Bringing Up Baby, Sergeant York, Red River, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Rio Bravo and more. He was known for his easy maneuvering through multiple genres and for being an actor's director.

Bogart made quite a number of great movies and he was great in them and this is one of them.  Bacall is also sensational and I can't help but want to thank her agent for his insight.  Why didn't anyone else see that?  

Vickers nailed her sexpot role but not her overall career.  This is the best film she ever made.  Her character all but disappears in the final quarter.  Novelist Chandler said that Vickers gave such an intense performance that she completely overshadowed Bacall.  Maybe that's why Vickers strangely vanishes.  Who's the leading lady around here, huh?

Elisha Cook Jr... as noirish as they come

The supporting cast is also exceptional.  It is rare to see prolific B actor John Ridgley not in his usual good-guy role.  B cowboy actor Bob Steele is most convincing as one of the film's several thugs and really, what's a film noir without Elisha Cook Jr.?

Dorothy Malone's part could have been easily eliminated  but it's nice that it wasn't.  When checking the dailies, Hawks saw a good-looking woman who exuded a mature sexuality.  Her scene as the bookstore clerk who locks the front door and pulls down the shade with Bogart as her only customer gave viewers something to ponder.

Malone and Bacall had no scenes together but they would have a frosty forging in their 1956 film outing, Written on the Wind.

Sonia Darrin, an excellent bad girl

Then there's the issue with Sonia Darrin, a most efficient, icy bad girl who figures prominently in one of the plot points.  She had had only bit parts in a few movies when she was offered the role of Carmen.  But when Hawks came across Vickers, he knew she was the better choice so he offered Darrin this other role.  She's quite good, too, in her no-nonsense, lethal sort of way.

While there's no denying this is her best movie role, her screen career came to an end after her agent annoyed the hell out of Jack Warner.  He threw the agent off the lot and would no longer work with any of his clients.  Warner would have liked to have reshot Darrin's scenes with another actress but that wasn't feasible so he retaliated by taking her name off the credits.

Bravo to Sidney Hickox's glorious black and white photography.  I loved the look of this film... the gloom, the menace, the clothes, the cars.  It's not difficult getting wrapped up in all the mayhem.

In 1997 the U.S. Library of Congress deemed The Big Sleep culturally, historically or aesthetically significant and added it to the National Film Registry.

A remake came about in 1978 with a location change to England and a dazzling cast headed by Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles.  I liked it, too, although not as much as the original.

Here's the scene of Marlowe

meeting Mrs. Rutledge:

Next posting:

A 40s romance drama