Brittle Chandler characters have been transferred to the screen with punch by Howard Hawks' production and direction, providing full load of rough, tense action most of the way.
The Big Sleep (1946)
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Reviews Counted:8
Fresh:7
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.2/10
Runtime: 3 hrs 50 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Chandler's first novel introduced private detective Philip Marlowe, and THE BIG SLEEP set the standard for private detective movies. Down-at-the-heels private eye Marlowe gets the assignment to... Chandler's first novel introduced private detective Philip Marlowe, and THE BIG SLEEP set the standard for private detective movies. Down-at-the-heels private eye Marlowe gets the assignment to clean up after the daughters of a dying millionaire, but dead people have a nasty habit of trailing in their wake. The famously tortuous story line (Hawks supposedly asked Chandler to clarify a plot point about the murder of the family chauffeur; the novelist hadn't a clue as to who did the deed) seems beside the point when Bogart and Bacall are onscreen. The final release was recut to include more of their scenes together. A must! Remade in 1978. [More]
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Malone, John Ridgely
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Malone, John Ridgely, Louis Jean Heydt, Elisha Cook, Regis Toomey, Sonia Darrin, Bob Steele, Martha Vickers, Tom Rafferty, Charles Waldron, Charles D. Brown, Peggy Knudsen
Director: Howard Hawks
Director: Howard Hawks
Screenwriter: William Faulkner, Jules Furthman, Leigh Brackett
Producer: Howard Hawks
Composer: Max Steiner
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Release:
Jul 25, 2006
Reviews for The Big Sleep
Don¡¯t try too hard to follow the story, just get swept away by the mood of the film.
A movie that every film student should study and every movie lover should watch at least once.
Fascinating if not necessarily improved edition of Howard Hawks' 1946 detective classic.
It is typical of this most puzzling of films that no one agrees even on why it is so puzzling. Yet that has never affected The Big Sleep's enduring popularity, because the movie is about the process of a criminal investigation, not its results.
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