Old Movie Watching with Rob's video: The Big Sleep 1946 - Movie Review

The Big Sleep (1946) was a 1946 crime noir classic, based on a novel by Raymond Chandler. Humphrey Bogart plays Philip Marlowe, the tough, world-weary private investigator, who is hired by eclectic General Sternwood, whom he meets in a steamy greenhouse to discuss business. Man, you know that Bogie must have smelled pretty ripe in that scene, like ciggies, booze, sweat and Brylcreem, but anyhow. So, it turns out the general is being blackmailed involving his daughter Carmen, played by Martha Vickers, who is a loose canon. It's the older daughter, however, that has an interesting in Marlowe, and that's Lauren Bacall's character Vivian, who wants to find out what is going on. So Bogart's Marlowe goes investigating, attempting to track down the blackmailer, who winds up dead, and, you know, there's a lot of murder and mayhem and honestly, I've seen the film several times and I still can't completely follow the story. But that's not a big deal as the acting and dialog are all so good here, along with an epic Max Steiner soundtrack. I find that, even after reading the outline I still don't completely get it all, but who cares. The dialog is sharp, witty and fast. Bogie just keeps the zingers coming, you know: "How do you like your brandy?" "In a glass." or Philip Marlowe: Don't you know any better than to wake a man up at two o'clock in the afternoon? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038355/quotes/?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu So the plot summary, sloppily: Marlow follows the lead to Geiger, the blackmailer, to his bookstore and eventually follows him home. He hears a shot and a scream, and goes in to find Geiger dead and Carmen, the wild daughter of the general, drugged out of her mind (and doing this annoying giggle thing.) He takes her home, returns, and finds the dead body gone. He then finds out that General Sternwoods driver was killed and dumped off a pier. He returns to the bookstore, there, follows a car, more characters are introduced, there's more shooting, a chase, police get involved, other characters introduced, and yeah, lots of stuff going on. If you don't believe me watch the film and you'll see. There are a couple co-stars worth noting: Bob Steele, who played Torpedo Canino, who previously starred in westerns, makes an excellent bad guy. And it was great to see Elisha Cook Jr (of many of these older films, but to me, I will always remember as "Ice Pick" of Magnum PI) So even though the star is Bogart, and even though everywhere he goes eerily young women all seem to fawn over him, such as Dorothy Malone as the Acme Book Shop. Beyond this though this film really boils down to Bogie and Bacall to be honest. This was the second of their four films together, with "To Have and Have Not" being the first (I need to check that one out still). Their real-life relationship started then, even though Bogart was still married to someone else at the time. Now a note about the creepiness of the age difference: when they married I think Bogart was 45 and she 20, which is a little apparent initially but you sort of overlook it after awhile. I also read that he drank like a fish through the production. So yes, the Big Sleep was an excellent crime noir film and Bogart and Bacall are excellent here, the dialog is great, the music excellent. Just overlook the convoluted plot and this is definitely one to check out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Sleep_%281946_film%29