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RARA-AVIS: The Big Sleep
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Now that "The Big Sleep" has celebrated its 50th
anniversary, the powers that be rightly believe that
the movie is ready for rediscovery. A new print of this
classic, which is based on Raymond Chandler's first
Philip Marlowe detective novel, is playing in
theaters. Copies of the novel are on display in
bookstores. "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles," a
photographic essay on the city accompanied by passages
from Chandler's work, has just been re-released (check
out the photography shelf on the Amazon.com Web site
for more about this gorgeous book). And the British
Film Institute is offering a book-length treatment of
the film by eminent scholar David Thomson.
Directed by the great Howard Hawks, photographed by Sid
Hickox, scored by Max Steiner (who wrote the music to
"Gone With the Wind"), "The Big Sleep" was made with
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall just after their
whirlwind courtship and marriage. The script features
contributions from Hawks's longtime friend and drinking
companion, William Faulkner.
Hugely entertaining as the movie is, it's almost as
much fun to compare Chandler's novel (I prefer the
sleek Vintage Crime edition, but there are many to
choose from) to the published screenplay (available in
"Film Scripts: One"). Reading the two versions, you
really see how Faulkner and company built on Chandler's
raucous wit and dark irony. For example, in the book,
when General Sternwood asks Marlowe how he likes his
brandy, he answers, "any way at all." In the movie,
Bogart wryly responds, "in a glass." In the book,
seductive females bat eyes at Marlowe; in the movie,
they throw themselves at him and in the case of young
Dorothy Malone, close up shop early and bed him down!
As Thomson notes in "The Big Sleep" (BFI Film
Classics), the plot of the movie is just an excuse for
hard boiled violence and sexual suggestiveness. Even
Chandler didn't know who committed one of the
murders. Thomson aptly states that "the whole thing is
a game, an artifice, a celebration of acting, dialogue
(as opposed to talk) and fantasizing. It is a dream
about dreaming--maybe the best." Check out these books
and join in the dream.
--Raphael Shargel is a research assistant in film at
the University of Virginia. He reviews movies for WINA
radio in Charlottesville, VA.
You'll find Raphael's favorite books on film on the
shelves of Amazon.com Books http://www.amazon.com/film
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And now, a book from Hyperion Press:
"Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca:
Bogart, Bergman, and World War II," by Aljean Harmetz.
You'll find this book at http://www.amazon.com/film
Illustrated with rare candid photos and actual memos from
the Warner Bros. archives, this brilliantly researched
book is filled with revealing, behind-the-scenes stories
about the cast, filmmakers, rumors, context of WWII, and
more. A vivid drama of the details that shaped Casablanca.
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