1946 noir, dir. Howard Hawks, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall:
IMDb /
allmovie.
The general hires the private eye to deal with his daughter's
blackmailer…
Many people despise the 1931 and 1936 adaptations of The Maltese
Falcon for not being the 1941. For me it's the other way round: I
enjoy this film less because it isn't the 1941 Maltese Falcon, and
just as in those other cases I can see that it's an unfair comparison.
But I think the problem is that where Falcon has a relatively
straightforward plot Sleep has multiple instances of criminality all
pulling in different directions; Hawks famously cabled Chandler to ask
just what did happen to Owen Regan the chauffeur, whether he was
actually murdered and if so by whom, and Chandler didn't know. This is
much more a film of incident: here are Bogart and Bacall smouldering
at each other, here is Bogart punching a guy in the face, here is more
Noir Stuff happening. The usual approach to this kind of thing is
"turn your brain off and enjoy it", and that's a thing I don't like to
have to do.
I'd like to give a nod to Dorothy Malone, the Acme Bookshop girl; she
was in a few bigger parts, notably Written on the Wind, but somehow
she never seemed to get the breaks.
Still, I've seen the 1945 cut as well – the one with the 20 minutes of
material that was excised to make room for more Bogart/Bacall
smouldering in the wake of To Have and Have Not, including an
explanation of the Plot So Far – and it's a worse film. Sleep just
isn't that great as a story (apart from anything else, it has nothing
approximating a moral dilemma for, well, anyone really); as a vehicle
for these two stars it's much more enjoyable.
But even the original cut has the upbeat ending. In the book, Marlowe
does not end up in a clinch with Vivian; they part, and he wists
after Mona Mars, and never sees her again either. But, hey,
Hollywood…
It's all right in close-up, but shuffle the scenes out of order and it
would be nearly as good. I can't love it.
Once more if you want more of my witterings you should listen to
Ribbon of Memes.
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