The Big Sleep is a movie which you’ll see in many “best movie” lists, it’s also present in the IMDB top 250. So this fact was reason enough for me to watch it. Is this movie, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and directed by Howard Hawks, really as good or should it be removed from the lists?
Humphrey Bogart plays (just like he did in the Maltese Falcon) private detective Philip Marlowe who is hired by a rich general who has family problems. Marlowe has to find out who is blackmailing him and is caught in a web of criminal activity, murder and seduction.
Unfortunately this web is so complicated it’s very hard to understand the plot. You hear so many names and so much happens that you’ll have no idea who each person is and sometimes it’s hard to understand what is going on. In other reviews I read the same thing about the plot, so I was glad it wasn’t only me (I even read that the script writer did not know who killed one of the characters).
The reason why I love watching movies is to see a good story. Next are things like the acting, how everything is shot, the music etc. In this respect I can’t say the Big Sleep is a good movie. So why all the positive reviews?
The movie really excels in its dialogs. These are very well written and very witty:
Eddie Mars: Convenient, the door being open when you didn’t have a key, eh?
Philip Marlowe: Yeah, wasn’t it. By the way, how’d you happen to have one?
Eddie Mars: Is that any of your business?
Philip Marlowe: I could make it my business.
Eddie Mars: I could make your business mine.
Philip Marlowe: Oh, you wouldn’t like it. The pay’s too small.
Philip Marlowe: Oh, Eddie, you don’t have anybody watching me, do you? Tailing me in a gray Plymouth coupe, maybe?
Eddie Mars: No, why should I?
Philip Marlowe: Well, I can’t imagine, unless you’re worried about where I am all the time.
Eddie Mars: I don’t like you that well.
Vivian: What will your first step be?
Philip Marlowe: The usual one.
Vivian: I didn’t know there was a usual one.
Philip Marlowe: Well sure there is, it comes complete with diagrams on page 47 of how to be a detective in 10 easy lessons correspondent school textbook and uh, your father offered me a drink.
Vivian: You must’ve read another one on how to be a comedian.
Bogart, who was in the process of divorcing his wife during filming and had started something with Bacall (who he later married), is excellent in his role. His scenes with Bacall are mesmerizing and you see the feelings the two have for each other. After the movie was already finished it was decided that more scenes between them were needed to put even more focus on it.
The atmosphere of glamour and dangerous underworld in which you always need to be aware of your surroundings has been shot beautifully. The fact that it’s in black and white only emphasises this.
Despite the well written dialogue, atmosphere and the acting, the plot is very disappointing, which was a reason for me not to be able to fully enjoy it. As you can see from the score below, the Big Sleep is not a bad movie, but one which I wouldn’t place in any favorite/best movie list.
Score: 7