One of the first roles Humphrey Bogart took, as he was trying to put gangster roles in his rearview mirror, was that of Dashiell Hammett’s private investigator Sam Spade. It was a defining role for Bogart and proof that he could play the hero just as well as he could play the thug. Years later he would be offered a very similar role as Philip Marlowe, a character so similar to Sam Spade that they could easily be mistaken for the same character. Marlowe came from the series of pulp novels written by Raymond Chandler and, though he would appear in several more films over the years, including the 2022 film Marlowe, this was the only time Bogart would play the part.
The Big Sleep opens with PI Marlowe being invited to the mansion of General Sternwood (Charles Waldron) who wants to resolve a series of debts his daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers) owes to bookseller Arthur Geiger. While there, Marlowe is introduced to Carmen who is vain and immature. He also meets the elder daughter, Vivian (Lauren Bacall) who is far more composed, but comes across as mysterious. Vivian believes her father’s motive for hiring the detective is to find his protégé, Sean Regan, who has been missing for over a month. Marlowe accepts the General’s assignment and thus begins a mystery that ultimately involves pornography, blackmail and kidnapping, and murder.
Upon release, one obvious problem was pointed out by nearly everyone reviewing the movie: it is overstuffed. So much happens over the course of the story that it becomes hard to follow. Characters come in and drop out constantly and there is even a murder that occurs that goes unexplained by the time it all wraps up. This is a symptom of hewing too close to the original novel rather than properly adapting it to a different medium. An alternate cut exists that smooths out some of these issues but it can only do so much.
Bogart is perfect, as expected, in a part that might as well be Sam Spade it is so similar. That’s not a complaint in any way; if it works, why change the formula? And not enough can be said about the smoldering chemistry between him and his real-life wife Lauren Bacall. They paired up originally in To Have and Have Not and that heat was so thick the two would be reunited three more times to capitalize on it. This film, however, struggles under the weight of Raymond Chandler’s original prose. There are more than a few subplots that could have been streamlined to make this a bit more palatable, but fans of the novel may appreciate it on that level more than the casual viewer will. 1946 - 114 minutes
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