# the big sleep (1946 film contributors to wikimedia project 23–29 minute the big slee ![[bigsleep2refq.jpg|300]] theatrical release lobby car directed by: howard hawk screenplay by: william faulkner leigh brackett jules furthma based on: the big sleep 1939 novel byraymond chandle produced by: howard hawk starring: - humphrey bogart- lauren bacall- martha vickers- dorothy malon cinematography: sidney hicko edited by: christian nyb music by: max steine production company: warner bros. picture distributed by: warner bros. picture release dates: - august231946 (new york city premiere)- august311946 (us running time: - 114 minutes (released cut)- 116 minutes (re-released original cut country: united state language: englis budget: $1.6 millio box office: $4.9 millio the big sleep is a 1946 american film noir directed by howard hawks. william faulkner leigh brackett and jules furthman co-wrote the screenplay which adapts raymond chandler's 1939 novel. the film stars humphrey bogart as private detective philip marlowe and lauren bacall as vivian rutledge in a story that begins with blackmail and leads to multiple murder initially produced in late 1944 the film's release was delayed by more than a year because the studio wanted to release war films in anticipation of the end of world war ii. a cut was released to servicemen overseas in 1945 shortly after its completion. during the delay bogart and bacall married and bacall was cast in confidential agent. when that movie failed reshoots of the big sleep were done in early 1946 meant to take advantage of the public's fascination with "bogie and bacall the big sleep was finally released by warner bros. pictures on august 31 1946. the film was a critical and commercial success and led to two more "bogie and bacall" films by warner bros.: dark passage (1947) and key largo (1948). in 1997 the original 1945 cut was restored and released. that same year the u.s. library of congress deemed the film "culturally historically or aesthetically significant" and added it to the national film registr philip marlowe a private detective in los angeles is summoned to the mansion of general sternwood who wants to resolve a series of debts his daughter carmen owes to bookseller arthur geiger. as marlowe leaves sternwood's older daughter vivian stops him. she suspects her father's true motive for hiring a detective is to find his protégé sean regan who had disappeared a month earlie marlowe stakes out geiger's shop and then follows geiger home. hearing a gunshot and a woman's scream he breaks in to find geiger's body and a drugged carmen as well as a hidden camera minus its film. after taking carmen home he returns and discovers that the body has disappeared. during the night marlowe learns that sternwood's driver owen taylor has been found dead in a limousine driven off the lido pier having been struck on the back of the hea vivian comes to marlowe's office the next morning with scandalous pictures of carmen that she has received with a blackmail demand for the negatives. marlowe returns to geiger's bookstore and follows a car to the apartment of joe brody a gambler who has previously blackmailed sternwood. he then finds carmen outside geiger's house where she insists that it was brody who killed geiger. they are interrupted by the landlord gangster eddie mar marlowe goes to brody's apartment where he finds vivian and agnes geiger's bookstore clerk. they are interrupted by carmen who demands her photos. marlowe disarms her and sends her and vivian home. brody admits he was behind the blackmailing having stolen the negatives from taylor but denies having murdered him. brody is shot dead when he answers his door. marlowe chases down and has the police arrest the killer geiger's former driver carol lundgren who believes brody was swindling hi vivian declares the case closed and pays marlowe though marlowe remain suspicious. he visits mars' casino and asks about regan who supposedly ran off with mars' wife but mars is evasive. vivian who is also at the casino wins a big wager and asks marlowe to drive her home. marlowe presses vivian on her connection with mars but she admits nothing. back at home marlowe finds a flirtatious carmen waiting for him. she says she did not like regan and mentions that mars calls vivian frequently. when she attempts to seduce marlowe he throws her out. the next day vivian tells him he can stop looking for regan; he has been found in mexico and she is going to see hi ![[bogartandbacallthebigsleeprefq.jpg|300]] philip marlowe (bogart) and vivian rutledge (bacall) eye to ey mars has marlowe beaten up to stop him from investigating further. he is found by harry jones an associate of agnes who is besotted with her. jones conveys her offer to reveal mars' wife's location for $200. when marlowe goes to meet him and be taken to her hiding place he spots mars' hired gunman canino threatening jones until the latter reveals agnes' address. canino then forces jones to drink deadly poison. afterward marlowe discovers that jones lied about agnes' locatio agnes arranges a meeting with marlowe and tells him that she has seen mrs. mars behind an auto repair shop near a town called realito. on his arrival at the shop marlowe is knocked out by canino and awakes tied up under the watch of mrs. mars. vivian also present frees marlowe and allows him to get his gun and kill canino. they drive to geiger's house and marlowe makes a call to mars pretending to be still in realit mars arrives with four men who set up an ambush outside. he enters and is surprised by marlowe who accuses him of blackmailing vivian as carmen had killed regan; mars claims she did this in a mental haze though marlowe doubts mars' credibility. he then forces mars back outside where he is shot by his own men. marlowe calls the police telling them that mars killed regan to cover for carme marlowe convinces vivian that her sister needs psychiatric care. the two finally confirm their feelings for each other with vivian confessing her own problems but claiming there's "nothing you can't fix ![[thebigsleep-behindthescenes02refq.jpg|300]] cast of the big sleep between scenes director howard hawks far lef **+** humphrey bogart as philip marlow **+** lauren bacall as vivian sternwood rutledg **+** john ridgely as eddie mar **+** martha vickers as carmen sternwoo **+** sonia darrin as agnes lowzier (uncredited **+** dorothy malone as acme bookstore proprietres **+** regis toomey as chief inspector bernie ohl **+** peggy knudsen as mona mar **+** charles waldron as general sternwoo **+** charles d. brown as norris sternwood's butle **+** bob steele as lash canin **+** elisha cook jr. as harry jone **+** louis jean heydt as joe brod **+** trevor bardette as art huck gas station owner (uncredited **+** tommy rafferty as carol lundgren (uncredited **+** ben welden as pete mars' henchman (uncredited **+** tom fadden as sidney mars' henchman (uncredited **+** theodore von eltz as a. g. geiger (uncredited **+** joy barlow as taxi driver (uncredited duration: 1 minute and 50 second trailer for the big slee the big sleep is known for its convoluted plot. similar to to hav and hav not there was no finalized script during filming due to the constant changes during production. the composition of the screenplay involved hawks and three writers. leigh brackett and william faulkner wrote alternating sections of the initial draft before exiting once they turned in their final draft. jules furthman and hawks rewrote during production to help appease censorship from the hays office which was vehement about excluding sexual themes. although chandler aimed to “disturb his readers” and their “sense of justice” external pressure from the studios resulted in some of the books darker moments getting overshadowed by a romantic subplot or other censorshi in the novel geiger is selling pornography - then illegal and often associated with organized crime - and is homosexual having a relationship with lundgren. carmen is described as being nude in geiger's house and later nude and in marlowe's bed. the sexual orientation of geiger and lundgren goes unmentioned in the film because explicit references to homosexuality were prohibited. carmen's sexuality from the novel also became more veiled. to pass the censorship carmen had to be fully dressed and the pornographic elements could only be alluded to with cryptic references to photographs of carmen wearing a "chinese dress" and sitting in a "chinese chair". a scene of her in marlowe's bed was replaced with a scene in which she appears sitting fully dressed in marlowe's apartment for him to promptly kick her out. this scene was initially omitted from the 1945 cut but restored for the 1946 version. the film smoothes over these gritty moments possibly to depict a more black and white type of morality. due to the hays codes which required that the act of seduction “never be more than suggested” the film's ending and carmen's reveal also became ambiguous. in novel marlowe witnesses the same violet behavior that leads carmen to kill “rusty” regan as she tries to shoot marlowe in a fit of rage. the film however omits this scene and instead has marlowe and mars discuss carmen's behavior at the end of the film attributing the murder to carmen “liking” regan. much like the other censorship of carmen's sexuality her motives for killing regan are only briefly mentioned in the last minutes of the film and the studio simplifies the sexual themes of the novel. midway through filming hawks and the cast realized that they did not know whether the chauffeur owen taylor had killed himself or was murdered. a cable was sent to chandler who told his friend jamie hamilton in a march 21 1949 letter: "they sent me a wire ... asking me and dammit i didn't know either another major change came from marlowe and vivian's relationship. their dynamic becomes explicitly romantic in order to give the film a “happier” ending. right before marlowe confronts mars the two hav a love confession as marlowe says “i guess i'm in love with you.” hollywood's influence also pushed for this creative change. charles k. feldman lauren bacall's agent forced hawks to reshoot bogart and bacall's scenes to add more chemistry due to harsh criticism against bacall's performance. the hope was that audiences would warm up to bacall if she was seen more as a romantic lead. as roger ebert wrote “some bad guys get killed and others get arrested and we don't much care–because the real result is that bogart and lauren bacall end up in each other's arms. nina foch had tested for the screen role of carmen. hawks cast vickers in the role after seeing a modeling photo of her. he worked with vickers closely on the role of carmen and later convinced warner bros. pictures to buy out her contract with universal. sonia darrin was cast in the role of agnes. hawks did not like her initial screen test but after supervising her makeup and wardrobe for another test he cast her in the part. her credit in the movie's credits was removed when warner bros. studio head jack l. warner got into a feud with her agent arthur pine following the film's completio ![[bacallandbogartonthesetofthebigsleeprefq.jpg|300]] bogart and bacall on the set during filmin principal photography on the film took place on the warner bros. backlot from october 10 1944 to january 12 1945. filming was meant to be completed in late november but was continually delayed due to bogart's increased drinking. he was in the process of ending his tumultuous marriage to his wife mayo methot following his affair with bacall during to hav and hav not. as a result of his drinking and abuse from methot bogart was unable to work for several days. when jack warner heard that in spite of this the cast was getting along he sent this ribbing memo > "word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. this must stop although post-production ended in march 1945 the big sleep was delayed by warner bros. until they had turned out a backlog of war-related films. because the war was ending the studio feared the public might lose interest in the films while the big sleep's subject was timeless. however there are several indications of the film's wartime production such as the female taxi driver who picks up marlowe in one scene with many traditionally male occupations being taken up by women following the draft. wartime rationing also influences the film: dead bodies are called "red points" which referred to wartime meat rationing and marlowe's car has a "b" gasoline rationing sticker in the lower passenger-side window indicating he is essential to the war effort and therefore allowed 8 us gallons (30l) of gasoline per wee soon after completing the big sleep bogart divorced mayo methot and married bacall in may 1945. in june bacall began filming for her first film without bogart confidential agent. the film released in november 1945 was deemed a critical and commercial disappointment with bacall's acting panned by critics. to capitalize on the "bogie and bacall" phenomenon that had developed bacall's agent charles k. feldman asked the studio to re-shoot scenes for the big sleep. warner agreed and these scenes were shot in early january 1946. julius epstein wrote the reshoots but he was not given a credi although only about twenty minutes of the film's original 1945 cut was removed and replaced twenty minutes was either condensed altered or eliminated with new footage. for example in the 1945 cut marlowe explores geiger's house where he doesn't in the 1946 release. a new sequence of marlowe and vivian meeting in a restaurant was also added replacing a ten-minute sequence of them meeting at the district attorney's office and vivian coming to marlowe's office a second time. a number of actors from the first cut did not appear in the second cut. pat clark was initially cast as mona mars. however clark was unavailable when her scenes were reshot in january 1946. peggy knudsen was cast to replace her. james flavin and thomas e. jackson were cast as police captain cronjager and district attorney wade. however they did not appear in the 1946 cut of the film when their scene - set in the district attorney's office - was remove ## 1997 release of the 1945 original cu in the mid-1990s the original 1945 cut was found in the ucla film and television archive. it was discovered that this version had been released to the military to show to troops in the south pacific. upon learning of this numerous benefactors such as american magazine publisher hugh hefner and turner classic movies raised the money to pay for its restoration. the original version of the big sleep was released in art-house cinemas in 1997 for a short exhibition run along with a comparative documentary about the cinematic and content differences between the 1945 cut and 1946 releas the big sleep premiered in new york city on august 23 1946 before being released on august 31. according to warner bros. records the film cost $1.6 million to produce and earned $3493000 domestically and $1375000 foreig ## contemporary review at the time of its 1946 release bosley crowther said the film leaves the viewer "confused and dissatisfied" points out that bacall is a "dangerous looking female" ..."who still hasn't learned to act" and notes > the big sleep is one of those pictures in which so many cryptic things occur amid so much involved and devious plotting that the mind becomes utterly confused. and to make it more aggravating the brilliant detective in the case is continuously making shrewd deductions which he stubbornly keeps to himself. what with two interlocking mysteries and a great many characters involved the complex of blackmail and murder soon becomes a web of utter bafflement. unfortunately the cunning script-writers hav done little to clear it at the en time film critic james agee called the film "wakeful fare for folks who don't care what is going on or why so long as the talk is hard and the action harder" but insists that "the plot's crazily mystifying nightmare blur is an asset and only one of many"; it calls bogart "by far the strongest" of its assets and says hawks "even on the chaste screen...manages to get down a good deal of the glamorous tawdriness of big-city low life discreetly laced with hints of dope addiction voyeurism and fornication" and characterizing lauren bacall's role as "an adolescent cougar in 1989 leslie halliwell gave it three of four stars stating "inextricably complicated moody thriller... the film is nevertheless vastly enjoyable along the way for its slangy script star performances and outbursts of violence suspense and sheer fun in 1991 pauline kael called it a "...witty incredibly complicated thriller...it's the dialogue and the entertaining qualities of the individual sequences that make this movie...the characters are a collection of sophisticated monsters... film historian lee pfeiffer wrote in 2006 "given the tortured history of bringing raymond chandler's novel to the screen it's somewhat amazing the big sleep turned out to be... a genuine classic ## comparison of the 1945 original cut and 1946 releas between the 1945 cut and the 1946 release critics hav become divided as to which version is superior. some consider the 1945 cut to be the better partly due to the inclusion of a scene at the district attorney's office where the facts of the case thus far are laid out. others consider the 1946 release to be the better due to its focusing more on the bogart-bacall pairing. chandler praised martha vickers' performance in the original 1945 cut feeling that she overshadowed bacall's performance. he felt that the deletion of many of her scenes in the 1946 release was done to enhance bacall's performanc film critic roger ebert who described the movie in 1997 as being about the "process of a criminal investigation not its results" preferred the 1946 version and sai > the new scenes add a charge to the film that was missing in the 1945 version; this is a case where "studio interference" was exactly the right thing. the only reason to see the earlier version is to go behind the scenes to learn how the tone and impact of a movie can be altered with just a few scenes... as for the 1946 version that we hav been watching all of these years it is one of the great films noir a black-and-white symphony that exactly reproduces chandler's ability on the page to find a tone of voice that keeps its distance and yet is wry and humorous and care in a 1997 review eric brace of the washington post wrote that the 1945 original had a "slightly slower pace than the one released a year later and a touch less zingy interplay between bogart and bacall but it's still an unqualified masterpiece in 2003 afi named philip marlowe the 32nd greatest hero in film. the film placed 202nd on the 2012 sight & sound critics' poll of the greatest films ever made and also received two directors' vote roger ebert included the film in his list of "great movies" and wrote "working from chandler's original words and adding spins of their own the writers (william faulkner jules furthman and leigh brackett) wrote one of the most quotable of screenplays: it's unusual to find yourself laughing in a movie not because something is funny but because it's so wickedly clever a region-1 (u.s. and canada) dvd version of the big sleep was released in 2000. it is a double-sided single-layer disc; with the 1946 theatrical version on side-a (114 m) and the 1945 version (116 m) on side-b. the 1946 opening credits appear on both versions including peggy knudsen who never appears in the original version. nowhere is the original actress pat clark ever credited. the dvd also contains a 16-minute edited version of the 1997 documentary comparing the two versions that is narrated by robert gitt who worked on the restoration of the 1945 version. film critic walter chaw writes of the dvd releases of the big sleep and to hav and hav not (1944) "the fullscreen transfer of the big sleep is generally good but again not crystalline though the grain that afflicts the earlier picture is blissfully absent. shadow detail is strong - important given that the big sleep is oneiric - and while the brightness seems uneven it's not enough to be terribly distracting. the dd 1.0 audio is just fine the big sleep was released on blu-ray in 2015 including both the 1945 and 1946 cuts in one packag 1.jump up to: a b c d e "the big sleep (1946)". turner classic movies. archived from the original on september 17 2011. retrieved december 13 2022 2.jump up to: a b c d e f g h the big sleep at the afi catalog of feature film 3.jump up to: a b c warner bros financial information in the william schaefer ledger. see "appendix 1" historical journal of film radio and television (1995) 15: sup1 p. 26 doi: 10.1080/01439689508604551 4.variety film review; august 14 1946 p. 10 5.harrison's reports film 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"film adaptation and the censors: 1940a hollywood and raymond chandler". studies in the novel. 35 (3): 325–338 - via jstor 12."the motion picture production code of 1930 (hays code)". artsreformation.com. archived from the original on february 22 2011. retrieved march 24 2026 13.monaco james (august 14 2014). "from the s&s archives: notes on the big sleep 30 years after". sight & sound. no.winter 1974/75. retrieved december 4 2019 14.hiney t.; macshane f. eds. (2000). the raymond chandler papers: selected letters and nonfiction 1909–1959. atlantic monthly press. p.103. isbn978-0802194336 15.jump up to: a b "the big sleep movie review & film summary review: ". www.rogerebert.com. retrieved march 24 2026 16."martha vickers - the starlet who dared to upstage lauren bacall". aenigma. june 22 2017. retrieved december 25 2022 17.mccarthy todd. "at 100 hawks remains ever modern ever a master". daily variety. p.63 18.william grimes (january 9 1997). "mystery of 'the big sleep' solved". the new york times 19.jump up to: a b brace eric (april 25 1997). "the original 'big sleep': rise and shine". the washington post. retrieved december 16 2009 20.crowther bosley (august 24 1946). "the big sleep warner film in which bogart and bacall are paired again". the new york times. retrieved december 16 2009 21."cinema: the new pictures august 26 1946". time. august 26 1946. archived from the original on february 19 2011. retrieved december 16 2009 22.halliwell leslie (1989). halliwell's film guide (7thed.). harper & row. isbn978-0-06-016322-8 23.kael pauline (1991). 5001 nights at the movies. henry holt. isbn978-0-8050-1366-5 24.pfeiffer lee (2006). the complete idiot's guide to classic movies. alpha books. isbn978-1-59257-557-2 25.jump up to: a b c ebert roger (june 22 1997). "the big sleep (1946)". chicago sun-times. retrieved december 16 2009 26.hiney t. and macshane f. "the raymond chandler papers" letter to jamie hamilton 30 may 1946 page 67 atlantic monthly press 200 27."afi's 100 years... 100 heroes and villains". american film institute. 2003. retrieved may 13 2019 28."votes for the big sleep (1946)". british film institute. archived from the original on december 20 2016. retrieved december 11 2016 29.ebert roger. "introduction to great movies". chicago sun-times. retrieved may 15 2020 30.the big sleep (dvd). warner home vidya. february 15 2000. 114 minutes. see "the big sleep (1946)". warner bros 31.chaw walter (n.d.). "ffc presents bogart on dvd - to hav and hav not - the big sleep". film freak central. archived from the original on october 22 2007 32.greenland david (march 2016). "what's out there". classic images (489): 2 **+** the big sleep at imd **+** the big sleep at the tcm movie database (archived **+** the big sleep at the afi catalog of feature film **+** the big sleep at rotten tomatoe **+** the big sleep film trailer on youtub **+** the big sleep at allmovi **+** the big sleep essay by daniel eagan in america's film legacy: the authoritative guide to the landmark movies in the national film registry a&c black 2010 isbn0826429777 pages 393-394