The Big Sleep (1946)

Directed by: Howard Hawks
Starring: Humphrey Bogart

***

The Big Sleep is my second encounter with the private eye by the name of Phillip Marlowe. Robert Altman and Elliot Gould's 1973 take on the character left me very satisfied, even if that satisfaction didn't extend to the film itself. So having liked the character and for all the other obvious reasons, I went in for round two to see how Howard Hawks and Humphrey Bogart would fair.

In order to get the inevitable comparisons out of the way, I'll say that The Big Sleep was a far better movie than The Long Goodbye and leave it at that. Whether that means The Big Sleep was good, great or amazing remains unsaid. I'll leave that for later.

Having seen two films surrounding Phillip Marlowe now, I realize that the story's in which he appears are really only settings in which he exists. The real attraction is Marlowe. I missed this in the Long Goodbye I think because Gould was more of a characture with a few catch phrases casually following a few leads. Bogart is really made to play this character who is obviously created for film noir. Bogey is so cool, calm, collected and all together charming that what he says becomes gospel, what he does becomes justified and who he is, is just plain entertaining.

Like any mystery, The Big Sleep opens with a simple case which Marlowe is assigned to. This case, find a missing person. Of course the plot thickens and more characters reveal their secrets as Marlowe digs deeper into the case. Around every corner is Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall) whose powers of seduction are second only to her powers of deception. The real mystery becomes how and why is she so involved in this case that started with a missing person and ends with one death after another.

If my synopsis seems vague, its only consistent with the telling of the story. I never really got a good explanation as to what was going on but as I said I really didn't need to. When Marlowe discovers something, Bogey's cool and determined face made me realize that he knew what to do next even if I didn't so everything was going to progress and eventually I'd understand.

And I did, as always in film noir, the case was summed up in the end. This person decieved this person to frame this person to get away with this... was pretty much the long and short of it. While I appreciate a movie not dropping its entire plot on top of me, I think Marlowe said it best... ''...she (the plot) tried to sit on my lap while I was standing up." And well, what happened? I missed it. But Bogey... he's so cool.