I admit to being a film noir fan of long standing. Maybe it was the fact of growing up in the time of black and white television and watching all those late night movies which were freely available at the time. Maybe it was that tight, if improbable, dialogue, the relatively simple plots and the dramatic effect of the shadows of black and white photography on mood. In any case, The Big Sleep fits nicely into that mix. The plot line is fairly simple- Out in 1930’s California an old man with two young wild daughters mixed up in who knows what is looking for his old surrogate drinking companion (an Irishman, naturally) who is missing- enter Phillip Marlowe, gumshoe extraordinaire, who will go through hell and high water to find him dodging bullets, blackjacks, gangsters, crooked cops and meaningful glances from the daughters in order to satisfy his client’s wishes. Intrepid, this Marlowe. Of course, as always the real guilty parties will have to face justice, some kind of justice. That is Marlowe’s way, as well. In any case one should read Raymond Chandler’s book by the same name, that this movie is based on, to get a better feel for the language, his original plot, and better insight into the motivations of the parties. This movie was remade in color in the 1980’s and is probably truer to Chandler’s designs but this Bogarted version is the definitive Big Sleep.
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