The Big Sleep (1946)

Film: The Big Sleep

Director: Howard Hawks

Country: USA

Released: August 1946

Runtime: 116 minutes

Genre: Film Noir

Studio: Warner Bros

Influenced: Jacques Tourneur, Coen Brothers, Michael Winner, Christopher Nolan

Director Howard Hawks is perhaps most famous for the westerns he filmed with John Wayne (Rio Bravo, Red River) and the screwball comedies he directed with Cary Grant (His Girl Friday, Bringing Up Baby), but for me The Big Sleep is his greatest achievement, marking a clear departure in his output. It's also one of Humphrey Bogart's most memorable performances on screen, in fact the whole cast is outstanding, with Lauren Bacall bringing a simmering chemistry to her scenes together with Bogart. 

The film follows the adventures of Raymond Chandler's legendary private detective Philip Marlowe (Bogart) as he attempts to solve a case involving two society girl sisters, Carmen (Martha Vickers) and Vivian (Bacall). Marlowe quickly finds himself ensnared in a web of shady characters, including a powerful oil tycoon, a nymphomaniac, a corrupt cop and a mysterious nightclub owner. Marlowe navigates the murky underworld of Los Angeles in search of the truth, as the plot constantly twists and turns. This is a film that demands your full attention, in much the same way that Christopher Nolan's films do for modern audiences.

One of the film's great strengths and innovations is the quality of its script. Thanks to the involvement of two prestigious American writers, science fiction queen Leigh Brackett and Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Faulkner, the script is full of witty and poetic dialogue and clever and elaborate plot devices, helping the film move along at a brisk pace, but never letting the audience get too ahead of the story. Apparently even Chandler himself struggled to explain the plot to Faulkner when the screenwriters went to the author for advice during production of the film.

Of primary importance to the film's plausibility is trying to understand Marlowe’s motivation for digging deeper, and this is dealt with cleverly in the script. Near the end of the film at Art Huck’s, after coming round, Bacall asks Bogart, "why did you have to carry on?", and Bogart replies, "too many people told me to stop". Marlowe is clearly the sort of character that rises to a challenge, dogged and tenacious in his pursuit of the truth. He's the paragon of all film detectives.