The 1946 film noir THE BIG SLEEP with Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall is an iconic work of classic Hollywood that cemented Bogart’s reputation and confirmed Bacall’s. However the movie that everyone knows is not the original cut of the film. That version went unseen for 52 years until its rediscovery in 1997 when it was released to select theaters only. Director Howard Hawks originally shot the movie in the Fall of 1944. SLEEP’s release was held back as Warner Brothers, knowing that World War II was drawing to a close, wanted to release several WW II themed movies that they had in the can before those films became outdated. A crime drama, especially one based on Raymond Chandler, could be released later and still be contemporary.
After the success of her first movie with Bogart, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT made early in 1944, Warners rushed Lauren Bacall into a new film called CONFIDENTIAL AGENT which had a wartime theme. That movie, which did not feature Bogart, was not a success and Bacall’s sudden stardom seemed in jeopardy. Due to BIG SLEEP’s delayed release, Bacall’s agent Charles K. Feldman got to preview it and he suggested that several changes be made. These changes were designed to beef up Bacall’s role and give her more scenes with Bogart. In order to do that it was necessary to remove scenes that were shot earlier and to expand Bacall’s existing scenes. While this made the movie the classic it is today, it took out scenes that explained the complicated plot.
THE BIG SLEEP was intended to be a prestige production from the very beginning. In addition to having a top name cast and director, the studio hired celebrated author William Faulkner to adapt Chandler’s book. Faulkner’s adaptation was then polished by a couple of Hollywood screenwriters for the original film. When scenes had to be reshot and rewritten, Faulkner had already departed and so more screenwriters were brought in to do the rewrites. It was a small miracle that BIG SLEEP held together. While the revised version was great for Bogart & Bacall, there are parts of the storyline that just don’t make sense or are neglected altogether such as who killed the chauffeur? At the time only the critics noticed and the film went on to be a box office smash.
We still have the original 1945 version because Warners had sent a few copies of it overseas to be shown at military bases. Those copies were pulled once they began reshooting the movie. They should have been scrapped but one survived and that was found in 1997. It was in very good condition so an extensive restoration wasn’t necessary. Having recently compared the two versions (the 1945 film is on a Blu-ray with the 1946 release), I prefer the original for clearing up the missing plot points. For those who don’t know the story, Bogart is detective Philip Marlowe who is investigating skeletons in a rich family’s closet which Bacall is trying to cover up. Plenty of other reviews go into more plot details but I just wanted to give the background on the movie’s history.
The Capsule Critic 