THE BIG SLEEP (1946) A puzzling plot but no yawner

Having so ably filled Sam Spade’s gumshoes in THE MALTESE FALCON five years earlier, Bogart made a perfect Philip Marlowe in THE BIG SLEEP. Hired by the wealthy father of two spoiled daughters - one, a haughty Lauren Bacall; the other, a flirty woman-child who, Marlowe says tried to sit in his lap while he was standing up – Marlowe tackles a complex and convoluted case involving blackmail and murder. It’s fun, but all very confusing. Even Ray Chandler, who wrote THE BIG SLEEP, is supposed to have told the film's director, Howard Hawks, that he didn't have the slightest idea what the story is about! One thing's sure: even though THE BIG SLEEP might keep you awake trying to figure it out, it's worth the tossing and turning just to see Bogart seduced, in an odd scene in a bookstore, by a clerk (Dorothy Malone) he's met for the first time.THE BIG SLEEP was reawakened in 1978 with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe, whom he had played three years earlier in FAREWELL, MY LOVELY (1975), itself originally made in 1946 with former song-and-dance man-turned hard-boiled character actor, Dick Powell. Got all that? (Trivia note: Powell's version, which has great acting, dialog and noir photography, was retitled MURDER, MY SWEET because producers were afraid "Lovely" in the title might remind audiences of Powell's earlier song-and-dance career. It worked. Powell kept the tough guy image for the rest of his life, even on TV.)