The Big Sleep Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), directed by Howard Hawks. The Big Sleep, © 1946 Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., renewed 1973, United Artists Television, Inc; photograph from the Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive, New York City, the private detective portrayed by Bogart, is hired by the wealthy General Sternwood (played by Charles Waldron) to investigate the person who has been blackmailing him over the gambling debts of his promiscuous but childish daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers). Marlowe is also tasked with finding out what happened to Sean Regan, a friend of the family who investigated a previous blackmailing.

• The Big Sleep 1946 Movie
• The Big Sleep Netflix
• The Big Sleep 1978

The Big Sleep 1946 Movie

While keeping an eye on Carmen, Marlowe falls in love with her protective and mysterious older sister, Vivian (Bacall), and becomes embroiled in a whole host of criminality involving killers, blackmailers, gamblers, and pornographers. Unlike most detective films, the plot focuses on the rather than on solving the crime. At one point during production, the actors, director, and screenwriters were so confused by the plot—especially whether the death of the family chauffeur was a murder or a suicide—Hawks sent a telegram to Chandler asking for help.

The Big Sleep Netflix

The Big Sleep 1978

As the novelist later admitted, “I didn’t know either.”The homosexuality of one of the characters and the emphasis on in Chandler’s original story ran afoul of Hollywood censors and had to be toned down for the film. However, the screenplay is still replete with sexual, which only heightens the tension and attraction between Bogart and Bacall. Somewhat problematic was Bogart himself, whose deteriorating marriage, affair with Bacall (whom he married in 1945), and increased drinking led to frequent absences from the set, forcing Hawks to shoot scenes around him. Although the film was finished in 1945, studio executives put it on hold while they released a backlog of war movies. During this time Hawks reshot several of the scenes, mainly to improve Bacall’s performance and to emphasize the chemistry between Bogart and Bacall that had been developed in (1944). The recut version of The Big Sleep was released to the public in 1946.