US 114m Dir: Howard Hawks Key Cast: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
Based on: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (Novel)
This must be the film noir with the least accessible plot. There is blackmail, murders, deaths, documents, femme fatales, henchmen, and an endless stream of characters for Humphrey Bogart to interrogate, beat up and annoy.
The script was rewritten as filming took place and when Raymond Chandler, the author of the book this was based on, was asked questions about the plot even he didn't know the answers. It's a huge flaw in a crime drama for the mystery to not be accessible to the viewer and I think this goes beyond inaccessible and into the realms of nonsense.
Despite this, it's somehow pretty good. The plot of the script may be terrible but the dialogue is anything but. It's fast-paced and full of cynical wit from just about every character. There are lines of dialogue here that are funnier than those in most comedy movies, and delivered better too.
Bogart is superb here as Philip Marlowe. He's bright and ingenious whilst being more than a little rough around the edges. He doesn't really break the law as such but he certainly is happy to play around on the murkier side of ethics. The chemistry between Bogart and Lauren Bacall is superb and the pair married shortly after filming was complete.
This film really pushed against the Hayes Production Code. The book contains quite a few sexual elements and these were severely toned down for the movie version with some quite obscure hints which further add to the fogginess of the plot. The flirting between Bogart and Bacall's characters is full of innuendos and feels quite sexy for a film of its day.
Full of atmosphere and Bogart is great, especially when together with Bacall, but the plot is unbelievably complicated.
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