The Big Sleep (1946 film)
| The Big Sleep | |
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Theatrical release lobby card
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| Directed by | Howard Hawks |
| Produced by | Howard Hawks |
| Screenplay by | |
| Based on |
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Max Steiner |
| Cinematography | Sidney Hickox |
| Edited by | Christian Nyby |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $3 million (US rentals) |
The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in a story about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its results."William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay.
In 1997, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and added it to the National Film Registry.
Private detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is summoned to the mansion of his new client General Sternwood (Charles Waldron). The wealthy retired general wants to resolve gambling debts his daughter, Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers), owes to bookseller Arthur Gwynn Geiger. As Marlowe is leaving, General Sternwood's older daughter, Mrs. Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall), stops him. She suspects her father's true motive for calling in a detective is to find his young friend Sean Regan, who had mysteriously disappeared a month earlier.
Marlowe goes to Geiger's rare book shop. Agnes Louzier (Sonia Darrin), Geiger's assistant, minds the shop, which is the front for an illegal operation. Marlowe follows Geiger to his house, where he hears a gunshot and a woman scream. Breaking in, he finds Geiger's body and a drugged Carmen, as well as a hidden camera with an empty cartridge. Marlowe picks up Carmen and takes her home. He goes back to the house, but discovers the body is no longer there. Marlowe later learns that the Sternwoods' driver (Owen Taylor) has been found dead, with his car driven off a pier.
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Wikipedia