NFR Project: 'The Big Sleep' (1946)

 

NFR Project: “The Big Sleep”

Dir: Howard Hawks

Scr: William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman

Pho: Sidney Hickox

Ed: Christian Nyby

Premiere: Aug. 31, 1946

114 min.

It was the perfect combination of elements, crafting a textbook detective film together.

The literal stars were aligned. The great Howard Hawks had directed 45-year-old, married Humphrey Bogart and 19-year-old Lauren Bacall in her first film, the Hemingway adaptation To Have and Have Not (1944). Bogart and Bacall began an affair during filming.

Their chemistry onscreen was magical, truly magnetic. The movie was a hit and, being in the public eye, so was their off-screen relationship. It was scrutinized and made much of in the press.

This film was made by Hawks immediately after that, between Oct. 10, 1944 and Jan. 12, 1945. Warners held the film back to push out a bunch of war movies, seeing the end of World War II in sight. During this interval, Bogie got divorced and he and Bacall got married on May 21, 1945 – a marriage that would last until Bogart’s death in 1957.

The fact of their celebrity spurred Bacall’s agent to propose that they beef up her part. All parties consented, and in early January of 1946, additional shots of them interacting with playful cool were made and integrated into the film. (The 1945 release survives as a variant.) Finally, in August 1946, the film hit the theaters. They are testimony to the incandescence, the “tough” romanticism, of Bogart and Bacall’s pairing.

The movie is the adaptation of a classic Raymond Chandler novel . . .cleaned up a bit. Here Bogie’s detective, Philip Marlowe, goes to meet an aged millionaire, General Sternwood (played exactly right by Charles Waldron), who wants him to relieve a blackmailer of incriminating photos of his wayward daughter, the spoiled and disturbed Carmen (Martha Vickers) who triggers seven murders. On his way out, Marlowe meets Sternwood’s other daughter, Mrs. Vivian Sternwood Rutledge (Bacall). They banter insolently. She accuses him of being hired to find the General’s friend and companion Sean Regan, who disappeared a month before.

Then – well, to understand the film thoroughly you must first turn to Tim Dirks and his entry on it in his encyclopedic filmsite.org. He gives us a granular observation of all the pertinent details of the script, which are incredibly complicated and at times don’t make any sense. It seems not to matter. Marlowe careens smoothly from one tight spot to another, keeping just one jump ahead of everyone else.

And we are firmly wedded to our leading character throughout. Bogart is always a pleasure to watch, to see how he just seems to throw the role away. We see what he sees; we figure it out, if possible. I had to have it explained to me.  (I am again grateful to Dirks, who proves on his site – with a flow chart! – who killed who.) Marlowe combs through a rogues’ gallery of misfits, killers, and meets a mastermind tricked into a sham showdown.

He is canny and sarcastic, another classic Bogartian hero, much like his Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Hawks sets up a world in which everyone is suspicious, or has a motive for quashing the truth. Marlowe’s world is all darkness and shadowy interiors. Hawks presents everything though his grim and fatalistic perspective – danger is always lurking offscreen, nobody can be trusted. He is helped by Hickox’s cinematography, which is efficient, functional. It creates a subdued universe that serves as a backdrop to a twisted snarl of people.

Suffice it to say that Marlowe metes out justice roughly, and does nothing in respect of the law. But those are the breaks. Faced with the lawless, what else can a man do? the movie seems to conclude. Marlowe and Vivian, at least, have each other.

So, Bogart’s immortal cool is engraved here for all time. Bacall stands up to him onscreen; it would presage an honored career for her as an actress. They would make two more films together: Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948). Bogart would be lauded for his performances in films such The African Queen (1951) and The Caine Mutiny (1954).

Marlowe outsmarts everyone. He is our shadow self, wise to the world and slightly tired of it all. Our amiable and indefatigable friend. A good guy in a bad place.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Gilda.