The Big Sleep (1946 film)

The Big Sleep (1946) was the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. It starred Humphrey Bogart as the hard-boiled private-eye Philip Marlowe and his real-life wife Lauren Bacall as the femme fatale. The film was directed by Howard Hawks. William Faulkner cowrote the screenplay with Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman. The film is fondly remembered for its extremely convoluted plot. A famous story tells that, during filming, the director and screenwriters could not figure out who had killed the character of Owen Taylor. They sent a cable to the author, who replied saying "I'm damned if I know!" After the film was finished it was shelved while Warner Bros. worked on other films. When it was finally released in 1946, the film was edited down for pace but it made the plot more murkey than it already was. A restored copy of the original 1945 version of the film released on DVD in 2000, along with the 1946 version that was edited down. The original version makes the plot clearer, however most film fans perfer the 1946 version that has been shown for years in revival theathers and television.

Critical Reaction

Film critic Roger Ebert, who enterd the film in his list of 100 Great Movies, praises the films writing:

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"Working from Chandler's original words and adding spins of their own, the writers (William Faulkner, Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett) wrote one of the most quotable of screenplays: It's unusual to find yourself laughing in a movie not because something is funny but because it's so wickedly clever."

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The Washington Post Critics Corner calls the film "an unqualified masterpiece."

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The film set the standard for film noir for years to come and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Related Topics:
Film noir - National Film Registry

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