1946
The author is Raymond Chandler – hard boiled detective story writer who wrote Murder My Sweet and remade as Farewell My Lovely in 1975, Double Indemnity, Lady in the Lake. etc.
There is a remake of this film in 1978, but this film was reshot before it was released. Copies of both versions exist, although the original never had theaterical release.
Lauren Bacall, who stars in this film made the following films early in her career.
One of its problems is its complex narrative.Think about the way the story is structured.
Some film analysts like to distinguish plot from, story or in effect the actual way the events would have occurred from the way they are presented in the film.
Unlike Memento which is the most complicated film in this respect, Big SLeep has a completely linear order - so why is it so hard to follow? This story is complicated by the narrative, but it is not because of its juxtapositions the way Memento is.
Gender issues
How are men and women depicted in the film? Kind of editing
Narrative structure: Things go on simultaneously in the real world in more than one place. Who knows what info and when does the audience find out about it?
AFTER THE FILM
Narrative Structure
In what ways is the narrative complex?
The problem is in part the large number of characters, some of whom seem initally important, but then vanish from the story (e.g. the woman selling books across the street from Geiger's book store), while others who are important appear only in short scenes and are hard to remember when they "reappear" - often as information (e.g. the chauffeur).Does this linear structure give the film a kind of realism that non linear structure would not? Dialog
Dialog is similar to that of other Chandler films (see above). Usually fast paced, wisecracking ("She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up") with its own unique rhythms.
Gender
Film work
Changes from the earlier version
Bacall had bad reviews for the film Confidential Agent. Big Sleep had been held up because the war (WWII) had ended and the studio was anxious to release its backlog of war movies. They felt a detective film didn't ned to be hurried. (There are minor references to rationing of food - especially meat, and gasoline).
As a result, to restore Bacall's career, the reshot scenes for the film nearly a year later. THese were done to add some of the qualities about her audiences had liked in her first film, To Have and Have Not