A Film Review The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep

a film by Howard Hawkes

When I first watched this film while I was in hospital I lost the plot after the first scene at the Sternwood House. But as I was reading the book with a friend I thought I ought to watch it again. On the second viewing again the plot held me for ten minutes but then I was lost. After twenty minutes I was completely captivated by Bogart and Bacall. I didn’t care what was going on; watching these two on screen was ballet, hearing them was like poetry.

One thing I have learned about this film is not to get hooked by the plot. It is not the most important aspect of this film. Enjoy the dark, brooding, intense and claustrophobic atmosphere.

Censorship must have played some part in the film as it deals with some pretty sensitive issues for its time – 1946. There is the pornographic racket Carmen is involved with, her nymphomania, drug taking and the homosexual relationship between Gieger – head of seedy porno ring - and an employee. Even the book – and I’ve read it all – draws a curtain over some of these areas and hints and makes assumptions at others.

Let me try and get the plot written down before I forget it. There are in fact two strands to this story. At the heart of it is Carman Sternwood a young wild, vulnerable daughter of General Sternwood – a chair bound, elderly millionaire.

The first part of the film involves Carmen who is used as a model for pornographic photographs and the General is being blackmailed. Marlowe is brought in to quietly deal with the blackmailer – he has been before – by a man called Brody.

The second part of the film involves a search for Sean Regan a man employed by the General but has disappeared. We discover that Carman killed him after he refused to go to bed with her. This has been covered up, however Eddie Mars – a gambler is connected to both daughters and is responsible for six of the murders in the film.

Howsat as a plot summary. And I’ve not even mentioned Vivien Sternwood Rutleidge – the oldest daughter of the General’s – played by Lauren Bacall. She is enough to confuse any plot. At first she thinks Marlow is hired to track down her husband who has recently disappeared as well – we later find out he has left Vivien to live with Eddie Mars’s wife who we know has also disappeared.

I think I’ll leave the plot. There is more then enough to go on – much more than the two websites have anyway.

Don’t watch this film for the plot. Watch it for Bogart and Bacall they dazzle with tension and electricity. Watch it for the fast talking Marlow full of wit and love and honesty. Watch it for the gorgeous women that glide through Marlow’s life – including the General’s daughters.
Watch it because in the most unlikely of situations there is love, vulnerability and loyalty and this triumphs over a seedy world or corruption, greed and exploitation and murder.