Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Sunday, January 26, 2014

Where Many Great Scenes Make a Picture


Again With Bogart and Company in The Big Sleep (1946)

Ann wanted to see this as she had just finished the book. I told her not to worry about the sometimes incoherent story, as neither did Howard Hawks, who rightfully was after "good scenes" and not to annoy viewers the rest of the time (as he aptly put it with regards all his post-war stuff). There are good scenes --- The Big Sleep is loaded with them --- and this time I noted what a contribution Max Steiner's score is (wish there was a CD). Ann thought Lauren Bacall had nothing and that Martha Vickers was infinitely better. I mentioned how Vickers' part was cut in order to protect Bacall. Wonder if that reality ever gave LB pause. WB reissued The Big Sleep in 1954 and called it The Violence Screen's All-Time Rocker Shocker, a personal favorite of taglines. What lavish streets and houses they built indoors for this. Bob Steele was terrific for one of the heavies. Bogart would remember and recommend him to later The Enforcer. Bogart and Hawks fell out and wouldn't work together again, HH piqued that offscreen Bogey got Bacall (the latter tells that story in her book). Pity such a petty thing robbed us of further teaming.

6 Comments:

Blogger reprobates said...

John,

Which version of THE BIG SLEEP did you watch, the 1945 original cut or the 1946 official release version? Bacall definitely has "nothing" as Ann describes her in the original cut, but they did make an attempt to steam her up in the re-do.

Between the two versions, I'd put back the scene in the DA's office from the first cut, it's a perfect "the show so far" scene for the middle of the film and it does sorta make sense of it all of it for the audience, but then I'd go with the final re-do all the rest of the way. The film would run a bit over two hours then, but who cares, it's a great place to be no matter how long it is.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

10:14 AM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

We would have watched the general release version, but I'd welcome some of the 1945 footage back in an expanded "Big Sleep" that would also include longer scenes from 1945 that highlight more of Steiner's music.

1:46 PM  
Blogger iarla said...

Lauren Bacall is very overrated. Not and actress, she's a highly stylized screen presence, and, of course, Veronica Lake did it first. Bacall got lucky by marrying a legend. Without that?

9:25 AM  
Blogger Mike Cline said...

THE BIG SLEEP is my favorite Bogey pic. I prefer the 1945 version over the 1946 re-do. The D.A. office scene clarifies the script. And for me, the less Bacall, the better (in any movie). My late mother-in-law had to spend an entire day with her in 1945 and didn't like her at all. Laurette Taylor or Sarah Bernhardt she wasn't, even though she thought she was. Every line of dialogue in TBS is sheer genius, and Steiner's score fits like a glove. So, who did kill Shawn Reagan?

10:42 AM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

Dan Mercer looks back on "The Big Sleep" --- novel and movie:


Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep" has been a favorite of mine since I discovered it among my mother's books while a freshman in high school. It was the edition published to coincide with the release of the Warner Bros. production, with stills from the movie. Even then, its pulp pages had turned a toasty brown, but nothing could diminish the vitality of the writing. My first attempt to watch the movie on late night television came a cropper, with my awakening on the living room floor to a test pattern on the Magnavox. I've watched it many times since, however, always with pleasure. The plot may be confusing and hard to follow, yet that only seems to make the scenes more potent and surprising in their denouements. It's as though, however often I see it, something different might happen the next time.

I understand that Chandler was pleasantly surprised by Dick Powell in "Murder, My Sweet," though he also remarked that Cary Grant was more in line with his mental image of Marlowe. Bogart was very different from Grant, at least physically--both had a way of channeling an inner darkness to good effect, and Bogart could display a surprisingly light touch--but Chandler accepted him without reservation. He was someone who could suggest an inner strength or toughness without having to act tough. In comparison, Chandler dismissed Alan Ladd as a small boy's idea of a tough guy.

Probably it's unfair to rate Bacall with Martha Vickers. The parts are very different. Vivian Rutledge was supposed to be a fundamentally decent woman, trying to protect her father and a sister who was probably crazy. Decency imposes certain restraints. Carmen Sternwood, as a sexed-up nut case, gave Martha Vickers a much showier role, but she couldn't be allowed to steal the show. The additional footage given Bacall in the general release version, to show the developing rapport between her and Bogart, was good for the story as well as for her. In the novel, Marlowe throws Carmen out his apartment, after she tries to seduce him, then tears apart his bed to remove the imprint of her "corrupt" body. Bogart is able to suggest his disgust with her much more effectively, with just a hardening of his eyes and tone of voice.

Still, I wouldn't carry a brief for Bacall. There must have been something about her, if she could captivate the likes of Bogart and Howard Hawks, but it isn't revealed on screen. Even in "To Have and Have Not," her sexiness is of an entirely synthetic variety, a nice girl imitating someone's else's idea of an alluring woman. In most of her films, she displays striking good looks while waiting for the other person to stop talking, so that she can say her line. From the standpoint of collaborations between Bogart and Hawks that never happened, maybe it would have been better had Bacall wandered out on an ice flow, a la Garbo in "Flesh and the Devil."

Daniel

11:20 AM  
Blogger Kevin K. said...

I watched The Big Sleep way back when I was 16 or so on channel 38 from Boston. Starting as late as it did -- 11:00PM -- I fell asleep on the couch for about 10 minutes around the 90-minute mark (including commercials). When I woke up, I had no idea what was going on. I stuck with it, but without much enjoyment.

3:22 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024