The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir starring the married couple of
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Bogart plays Private Detective Philip
Marlowe who is employed by a retired General to help resolve the gambling debts
of one of his two attractive daughters. Marlowe soon discovers that there is
more at stake than simply some unpaid debts and a confusing and ever deepening
plot unfolds, one which contains blackmail, duplicity and murder.
The movie is powered along thanks
to some great dialogue and obvious chemistry between the two leads. Its plot
however is as impenetrable as a Nun’s chastity belt and just gets more and more
confusing as it progresses. The story throws out leads and clues which
subsequently lead to more leads and clues, many of which ultimately end
nowhere. Raymond Chandler, the writer of the novel upon which the film is
based, famously stated that not even he could answer some of the questions the
plot places in front of the viewer.
