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Select media
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Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Country
USA
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Year
1946
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Genres
Film noir Thriller
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Introduction
“Chandler’s The Big Sleep became a series of sneering, needling, loving set pieces between actor and actress. The best example we have of snapping backtalk as a metaphor for sex.”
David Thomson, Have You Seen...? 2008
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall met and fell in love while starring in Howard Hawks’ To Have and Have Not (1944). Stars and director came together again for this ostensibly darker film – an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel – in which private detective Phillip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood to find out who’s blackmailing his unruly daughter.
With lighting as murky as its characters’ motivations, The Big Sleep is considered part of the cycle of urban thrillers known as film noir, yet the smouldering chemistry and repartee between the offscreen lovers result in something closer to screwball comedy. The plot is famously difficult to follow: the legend goes that Hawks phoned Chandler during the shoot to check who killed the Sternwood chauffeur, and even Chandler didn’t know.
Bogart and Bacall starred in two further films together, Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948), remaining married until Bogart’s death in 1957.
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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Philip Marlowe
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Vivian Rutledge
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Eddie Mars
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Carmen Sternwood
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woman at ACME bookstore
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Mona Mars [in final version]
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[[Mona Mars - in 1945 version]]
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Bernie Ohls
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General Sternwood
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Norris the butler
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Canino
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Harry Jones
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Joe Brody
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[librarian]
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[Agnes Lozelle]
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[furtive man at Geiger's]
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[Carol Lundgren]
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[Arthur Gwynn Geiger]
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[Ed, a deputy]
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[medical examiner]
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[taxi driver]
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[Pete]
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[Sidney]
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[[Wilde, the DA/1945 version only]]
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[[Captain Cronjager/1945 version only]]
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[hatcheck girl]
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[cigarette girl]
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[croupier]
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[man at roulette table]
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[Mars's henchman at car park]
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[counter waitress]
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[Mars's henchman in the alley]
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[Mars's henchman in the alley]
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[Art Huck]
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[motorcycle cop - role deleted]
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[waitress - role deleted]
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[Owen Taylor - role deleted]
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Credits
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Direction:
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Directed by
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[Assistant Director]
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[Assistant Director]
Production:
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©/Presents
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Production Company
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Executive Producer
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A Howard Hawks Production
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[Production Manager]
Writing:
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Screen Play by
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Screen Play by
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Screen Play by
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From the novel by
Photography:
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Director of Photography
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[2nd Camera]
Special Effects:
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Special Effects by (Director)
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Special Effects by
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[Special Effects]
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[Special Effects]
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[Special Effects]
Editing:
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Film Editor
Design:
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Art Director
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[Supervising Art Director]
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Set Decorations by
Costumes:
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Wardrobe by
Make-up:
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Makeup Artist
Music:
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Music by
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Musical Director
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[Orchestral Arrangements]
Sound:
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[Music Mixer]
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Sound by
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Sound System
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[Re-recording/Effects Mixer]
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[Re-recording/Effects Mixer]
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The Greatest Films of All Time 2012
Voted for by 8 critics and 2 directors.