The Big Sleep

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The plot of The Big Sleep (1946) is like going through a maze, but following it is not the important part of viewing the movie. Navigating the labyrinth of the story mirrors the twisted lives of the characters in this film noir work. The convoluted story is a comment on the deceptive nature of society as a whole, and that is the core theme of the film.

Basically, the thrust of the tale involves General Sternwood (Charles Waldron) hiring private investigator Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) to stop a man, Arthur Geiger (Theodore von Eltz) from extorting money from the General to cover up his troublesome daughter’s activities involving gambling debts. There has been a previous blackmail attempt concerning his youngest daughter, Carmen (Martha Vickers). The General had help from a tough guy by the name of Sean Regan, who the General treated like a son, to pay off a blackmailer, Joe Brody (Louis Jean Heydt). But Regan disappears, and that is why the General hires Marlowe. As it turns out, Carmen fell in love with Regan, who is in love with the wife of a gangster, Eddie Mars (John Ridgely). Much later we discover that a drunken Carmen killed Regan for not returning her affection. Eddie Mars gets rid of Regan’s body, hides his wife, Mona (Peggy Knudsen), and makes it look as if she ran away with Regan. His plan is to blackmail the General’s older daughter, Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall) who wants to protect her sister.

To complicate things further, the General’s chauffeur, Owen Taylor, who is in love with Carmen, goes to Geiger’s house with Carmen and kills the man for trying to cash in on Carmen’s disreputable behavior. But, a photo of Carmen, taken by Brody, at Geiger’s house implicates her in the killing. (The camera is hidden in a statue, suggesting the deceptive nature of this world, where appearances are deceiving). Taylor takes the film, but is followed by Brody, who takes the film away from him, and probably kills Taylor (even Raymond Chandler, the writer on whose book the movie is based, said he wasn’t sure who killed Taylor. The great William Faulkner, who worked on the screenplay, admitted he couldn’t make sense of the plot). Joe Brody is eventually killed by Geiger’s associate, Carol Lundgren (Tommy Rafferty) because he thought Brody killed Geiger.

Vivian doesn’t want Marlowe to dig any deeper about her sister, and pays him off, saying the case is closed with the deaths of the blackmailers. He instead goes after Mars, who eventually confronts Marlowe with his men. However, Vivian has fallen in love with Marlowe, helps him out, and Marlowe makes it look as if he is escaping while pushing Mars out into the open. Mars is, ironically, killed by his own men, in a sense by the evil he has created. Marlowe contacts the police and the story ends.

 

Now that we have dealt with the major plot points, we can look at the style, characters and dialogue to see how this film represents the film noir genre. The opening titles show a man and woman in silhouette, lighting a match. The use of blacks and grays are used to show the darker side of human nature. The match implies that irrational passions ignite some uncontrollable urges that may lead to disaster. The rich General is in a wheelchair, showing infirmity, decay. He meets Marlowe in his plant hothouse, where he sits bundled up despite the heat, since life has been drained out of him. (Marlowe sweats more and more as the scene plays out, implying he could get burned becoming involved in the General’s family affairs). The General has not led an exemplary life and sees the bad behavior of his offspring as punishment for his own actions. The title of the movie stresses that death rules in these types of tales. (Also, to illustrate this film’s influence, think of the Coen Brothers’ film noir parody, The Big Lebowski, where the elder Lebowski, in his opulent house, also appears in a wheelchair). The old General, now paralyzed and unable to enjoy life, depressingly lives vicariously through others, telling Marlowe he likes the smell as the detective smokes, and enjoys watching Marlowe drink alcohol. He says, “Nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy.” But, it is the nature of the beast that even in deprivation, humans still want to participate in those “vices.” The General comments on his orchids, saying how he doesn’t like them, calling them, “Nasty things. Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men. Their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption.” This line pretty much sums up the film noir perspective. Everything, from flowers to people, succumbs to negative forces, despite appearing deceptively appealing.

Marlowe exemplifies the film noir anti-hero: tough, smart, wise-cracking, but still holding onto a code which elevates him above the criminal element he investigates. He is not as rounded as Bogart’s other famous P.I., Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, but just like Spade, Marlowe wants to get at the truth. He is outraged by the cold way that the character Harry Jones (Elisha Cook, Jr. who was in The Maltese Falcon with Bogart) is killed by the brutal Canino (Bob Steele), who works for Mars. But, his job deals with criminal types, and he has associated himself with nasty characters in the past, admitting to an earlier involvement with the violent Regan. He worked for the district attorney once, but was fired for insubordination, showing how he doesn’t like to play by society’s rules. He, too, must be devious, as he pretends to be a nerd when he visits Geiger’s book shop to get information (the name “Geiger” suggests a Geiger Counter, a device that detects, which fits in with a detective story).

Since film noir deals in the sordid side of people, Marlowe’s dialogue deflates any attempt at pretense. When he first encounters Carmen, she says, “You’re not very tall, are you?” Height here can symbolically be taken to mean someone who takes the “high road,” or extols a higher morality, or can designate someone from the upper classes. It is also a superficial quality that is thought to be a positive physical attribute. Marlowe satirizes these concepts by dismissing the validity of the comment when he says, “Well, I, uh, tried to be.” Marlowe also says to the General that he went to college, but can still speak English, which is a jab at those who see themselves as superior because they have higher education credentials. When the general asks him, “How do you like your brandy, sir?” Marlowe shows his down-to-earth nature by saying, “In a glass.” A similar point is made when Eddie Mars says to Marlowe, “I could make your business mine,” to which Marlowe replies, “Oh, you wouldn’t like it. The pay’s too small.” Marlowe’s disdain for pompous upper-class snobs shows after Vivian says that private detectives are, “greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors.” Again, physical height is used to refer to placement on the social ladder. Marlowe’s response is, “I’m not very tall either. Next time I’ll come on stilts, wear a white tie and carry a tennis racket.” Film noir uses stylized, hard-boiled dialogue, not found in everyday conversation, to emphasize the underbelly of society. For example, when Vivian tells Marlowe she doesn’t like his “manners,” he replies, “I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. I don’t like ‘em myself. They are pretty bad. I grieve over them long winter evenings.” The thrust of all of these remarks is that no matter what your social status, you harbor baser instincts that can lead to corruption.

In film noir, there is an emphasis on the sexual nature of humans, which allows passion to rule over reason, and which can lead to disaster. In this story, Carmen was involved with Joe Brody and Owen Taylor, both of whom lose their lives, and comes onto many men, including Marlowe. She was attracted to Regan, who wanted to be with Mona Mars, and she kills him out of jealousy. Although Marlowe and Vivian have a rocky start, there is heat between them (the performances fueled by the real-life romance between Bogart and Bacall). Dialogue, which was added later to give the relationship here a To Have and Have Not feel, contains sexual connotations using horse riding metaphors. Vivian says that she hasn’t found anyone who can “rate” her as to her racing ability, which means her sexual prowess. Marlowe says, “Well I can’t tell ‘till I’ve seen you over a distance of ground. You’ve got a touch of class, but I don’t know how … how far you can go.” Vivian then basically says she is only as good as her sexual partner when she says, “A lot depends on who’s in the saddle.” In their case, love augments the sexual attraction, and they escape harm. (Throughout the film, Marlowe addresses Vivian formally as Mrs. Rutledge, like a business client, despite their romantic chemistry. One can see the film’s influence on Chinatown, where Jack Nicholson’s Jake refers to Faye Dunaway’s character, even after having sex, as Mrs. Mulwray).

When discussing film noir, the motif of the “femme fatale” must be addressed. This character type is usually deceptive, presenting a benign appearance covering a conniving, self-surviving agenda (think of Mary Astor’s Brigid in The Maltese Falcon). Carmen presents herself as an innocent child. When she first encounters Marlowe, she fakes a fall, so he can catch her. Marlowe later comments that “She tried to sit on my lap while I was standing up.” The image conjures up how a young girl might hop onto a father’s lap, but the fact that Carmen is an attractive young woman subverts the platonic act. The General talks about how Carmen sucks her thumb when she goes into her childlike routine, and we see her do this during the story. Marlowe has no tolerance for the behavior, and says Carmen needs to be “weaned,” forcing her to be on her own, responsible for her actions, instead of continually being protected by her father’s wealth.

The character of Agnes (Sonia Darrin) has seduced Harry Jones for her own purposes and later is more straightforward in acquiring cash from Marlowe for information regarding the location of Mona Mars. But she is manipulated by Joe Brody. Vivian is deceptive with Marlowe, hiding her machinations concerning the blackmailing involving her sister, Carmen. But, like Agnes, she, too is used by a man, in her case Eddie Mars. Also her goal is a positive one, which is to protect her sister, and she eventually aids Marlowe is bring down Mars. (The plot device of the older sister trying to protect the younger one is used in Chinatown, but, in that film, the relationship takes on a much darker aspect, steeped in incest). It has been argued that the portrayal of women as dangerous in film noir is a reaction by men fearful of strong women trying to usurp male power over females. Modern women are seen by unenlightened males as Delilahs trying to cut away at men’s virility. Indeed, one can say that even someone like Carmen has been marginalized by the male dominated society into seeking out the only avenues open to her to survive in a man’s world.

It is a shadowy, cynical, many times inhumane world that film noir presents. Even though the bad guys may get caught in the end, we are left with a sense of foreboding. Despite wanting to believe that we live in a civilized society, we walk down the streets, checking over our shoulders, fearful of the danger that may lurk behind every smile.

The next film is The Wild Bunch.