"You're not very tall are you?"

One of my favorite authors is Raymond Chandler. His most famous character is Phillip Marlowe. As great as the Chandler novels and stories involving Marlowe are, he is only remembered because of Humphrey Bogart’s characterization in The Big Sleep (1946).

Like The Maltese Falcon, this private eye seems to have been written with Bogie in mind. Marlowe is every bit as tough, shrewd and cynical as Sam Spade. Really the only differences between them are that Marlowe lives in Los Angeles and tackles those in high society, while Spade maneuvers around San Francisco and his cases revolve around less well-off people. Marlowe also carries a gun. Spade does not.

Although the book of The Big Sleep is better than the book, the same can’t be said of The Maltese Falcon, this is still a great movie. It might not have pioneered the genre of film noir or introduced the world to the direction of John Huston or the acting of Sydney Greenstreet, but The Big Sleep has plenty going for it.

It is much funnier than The Maltese Falcon, which is one of the reasons why I prefer Raymond Chandler to Dashiell Hammett, at least in regards to the Marlowe and Spade stories each wrote. The Big Sleep also has an adult plot, albeit one that is convoluted. This one involves sex and drugs; The Maltese Falcon was about jewels. The book is easier to follow than the movie, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

In The Big Sleep, the audience goes on the ride that Bogie and Lauren Bacall take us. All we know is Bogie has been hired by a rich man to figure out why he is being blackmailed by someone because of his daughter doing something wild. From there we meet the two daughters of old Mr. Sternwood. Lauren Bacall is Vivian, Mr. Sternwood’s oldest daughter who has already lost her husband. He ran out some time ago. The movie really doesn’t explore why, but the book does.

The part of Carmen Sternwood fell to Martha Vickers. She was so good in her role that Warner Brothers had to re-shoot some of the movie in order to beef up star Lauren Bacall’s part. The re-shot version is the one that was distributed to everyone in 1946. The original version has only recently been released. Bacall plays a larger role in the 1946 release version and because of this; it has become a film classic. The other version was good, but Warner Brothers made the right call when they released the re-shot version.

So basically Bogie as Marlowe is on a case to figure out why there is blackmail going on. The blackmailer gets shot, so the Sternwood family tells Marlowe to leave the case. He can’t he says, because he has fallen for Vivian. This is about as far as I will take the plot summery because I would hate to ruin the ending. I would also hate trying to figure out all the twists in the plot. Just watch the movie and enjoy the quality acting and chemistry of Bogie and Bacall.

This movie was also directed by Howard Hawks. His touches are present in the movie, as he was an extremely talented slapstick director. He does well with the one-liners that were provided by Raymond Chandler in the book, but he also adds some more of his own.

Arthur C. Clarke said about 2001: A Space Odyssey: to watch the movie and then read the book. Then watch the movie again and read the book again to make sure that you understand everything. That advice would work with The Big Sleep. The movie is great and contains most of the plot of the book, but the book is better and explains more. Everything is tied up into a little bow at the end of each, but, to me, the book does a better job of this. This is also the best movie made from a Raymond Chandler book. Just another reason to watch.