The Big Sleep (1978 film)


The Big Sleep is a 1978 neo-noir film, the second film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. The picture was directed by Michael Winner and stars Robert Mitchum in his second film portrayal of the detective Philip Marlowe. The cast includes Sarah Miles, Candy Clark, Joan Collins, and Oliver Reed, also featuring James Stewart as General Sternwood.
The story's setting was changed from 1940s Los Angeles to 1970s London. The film contained material more explicit than what could only be hinted at in the 1946 version, such as homosexuality, pornography, and nudity. Mitchum was 60 at the time of filming, far older than Chandler's 33-year-old Marlowe.

Plot

In 1970s England, private detective Philip Marlowe is asked to the stately home of General Sternwood, who hires Marlowe to learn who is blackmailing him. While at the mansion, he meets the general's spoiled and inquisitive daughter Charlotte and wild younger daughter Camilla.
Marlowe's investigation of the homosexual pornographer Arthur Geiger leads him to Agnes Lozelle, an employee of Geiger, and to Joe Brody, a man that Agnes has taken up with. He also discovers Camilla at the scene of Geiger's murder, where she has posed for nude photographs, and takes her home safely to a grateful Charlotte.
Returning to the crime scene, Marlowe is interrupted by gambler Eddie Mars, who owns the house where Geiger's body was found. Mars' wife Mona hasn't been seen in a while and may have run off with Rusty Regan, Charlotte's missing husband. Due to Charlotte Regan's gambling debts, Mars appears to have a hold over Charlotte as well.
Camilla tries to get her pictures back from Brody, who is now in possession of them. Marlowe intervenes but Brody is shot and killed by someone unseen.
A man named Harry Jones comes to Marlowe with a proposition. He is working with Agnes now, and she is willing to sell information as to Mrs. Mars' whereabouts. But on the night Marlowe shows up for their meeting, Harry is poisoned by Lash Canino, a hit man who is working for Eddie Mars.
Marlowe pays Agnes for the address. He tracks down Canino at a remote garage, where he is overpowered and taken prisoner. Mars' supposedly missing wife Mona is there as well. At a moment when Canino is out, Marlowe persuades her to set him free. In a shootout, he then kills Canino.
Camilla Sternwood appears to be grateful to Marlowe and asks him to teach her how to use the gun he just returned to her so that she can protect herself. He takes her to a wooded area so she can learn. After he sets up an empty can on the ledge of a wall of the ruins of a Roman castle for her to use as a target, she points the gun at him and begins pulling the trigger repeatedly. Marlowe was prepared for this and had given her the weapon loaded with blanks. She becomes hysterical at the ruse and he takes her home. It turns out that the emotionally disturbed Camilla had murdered her sister's husband Rusty and that Charlotte had covered everything up with Eddie Mars' help.
After confronting Charlotte with the facts, Marlowe tells her to have Camilla hospitalized. He then drives away from the Sternwood residence the same way he came in, hoping that the gravely ill general will never know the truth about his two wicked daughters.

Cast

Mitchum had also portrayed Philip Marlowe three years earlier in Farewell, My Lovely, a film shot as a period piece rather than set in the present day. Mitchum remains the only actor to play the character in more than one feature film. Dick Powell portrayed him in a movie, an episode of Climax! adapting The Long Goodbye, and several radio plays. Powers Boothe portrayed the character in a series of 1986 dramas made for HBO.
Actors who had earlier played Marlowe in feature-length films include Powell, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery, George Montgomery, James Garner and Elliott Gould. Marlowe would be played by James Caan in the 1998 television film Poodle Springs.

Development

The film was originally developed for United Artists, as when that studio bought the Warner Bros library they obtained the remake rights. It went to the Rank Organisation before eventually finding finance via Lew Grade. Michael Winner said an American was meant to adapt it but did not agree with changing the locale to Britain so Winner did it first. "I've changed the storyline far less than in the Hawks film," said Winner.
Mitchum, Sarah Miles and John Mills reunited for this film, having starred together eight years before in Ryan's Daughter.
Diana Quick performs the song "Won't Somebody Dance with Me", a ballad composed by Lynsey De Paul.

Critical response

Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4 and wrote that "despite all the great costumes and sets and London locations they’re given to work with, the actors don’t seem engaged". Janet Maslin of The New York Times described the film as "senselessly gaudy" and "overloaded with big names, and in this case the net effect of an all-star cast is to make an already confusing mystery even harder to follow". Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and wrote: "All of the zigs and zags of the original story are in the remake; what's missing is the enthusiasm. Talented actors such as Edward Fox and Oliver Reed sleepwalk through their parts." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times panned the film as "a flat, routine procedural detective mystery utterly devoid of any film noir atmosphere". Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote: "The production is handsome, but in the updating and relocation a lot has been lost." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote: "Everything is out of whack in this transposition of Chandler's material. The actors seem to be going through the motions, but they look wrong, sound wrong and inhabit the wrong settings." John Pym of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the location and time change had "destroyed the crucial geographical and temporal context of Chandler's novel; almost every aspect of the narrative now seems ludicrously out of place". He added that Winner "ploughs step by step through the complicated plot with a curious lack of interest in, among other things, the nature of his hero's character".

Home media (DVD & Blu-ray)

The Big Sleep has been released twice on DVD:
The Big Sleep was released in high-definition on Blu-ray by Shout Factory on February 20, 2018 as part of a two movie package along with Farewell, My Lovely. Both the 1946 version and this version have been released on Blu-ray.