The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep    Final Term Paper  Film Class   ©2012   Mick Cusimano

     The Big Sleep is a 1946 classic film noir movie with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Bogart plays detective Phillip Marlowe called in to investigate a blackmail scheme. The deeper Marlowe digs he finds more nefarious characters, more people get killed, and the web of the Los Angeles underworld continues to unravel more dark secrets. This is one of the sunniest cities in America but almost all the movie takes place in the dark shadows of night, fog, or rain.

    The signatures of film noir are the dark, rain-slicked city streets, the low key lighting, the claustrophobic compositions, jarring, canting angles, the hard boiled voiceover narration, and convoluted dark plots. These mark this genre as break from the classic Hollywood “invisible style” 1

    The usual relationship in a film noir is a male character (private eye, cop, journalist, criminal who has a choice between two beautiful women: the beautiful and the dutiful. 2

     There is no doubt that The Big Sleep is considered to be a classic film noir movie. Case closed as the Warren Commission hastily proclaimed. Or is it? It took a while to notice because Bogart plays such a serious hard boiled noir detective but after watching The Big Sleep several times it is revealed that there is almost a whole other movie embedded into the main one. My thesis is that there is a romantic screwball comedy parallel story going on between Bogart and Bacall.

     Back in 1934 Columbia pictures put out a small picture It Happened One Night  with little expectations. It starred Clark Gable as a reporter tailing an heiress played by Claudette Colbert on a cross country bus ride. The movie was an unexpectedly huge success. The mathematicians in Hollywood figured that opposites attracted and created cinematic sparks. By forcing a man and woman from different sides of the tracks, who can’t stand each other, into a situation together it becomes an entertaining experience for the audience. The characters in these comedies spar back and forth with snappy wisecracks and banter until they eventually fell in love.

    The special fictional characters of screwball…were strikingly middle-to-upper class…who defy the social property of their class in the innocently aggressive, noisily silly, endearingly defiant, and happily destructive way that little children at play disturb the peace and boredom of adults. In short the screwball combines slapstick and sophistication. 3
 
     This formula or premise was popular in the 1930s and 40s. Three of the most classic screwball romantic comedies are His Girl Friday, Ball of Fire, and Bringing Up Baby. His Girl Friday is a comedy about two competitive divorced newspaper reporters who work together again and after hilarious battles rediscover what they have in common.
      When I was a kid we discovered old Life magazines in my grandmother’s attic. One 1941 article filled with photos was about this sensational new movie called Ball of Fire. Ball of Fire is about a reclusive professor Gary Cooper who is researching slang as part of a twelve year encyclopedia writing project. He falls for a night club singer Barbara Stanwyck trying to get away from her gangster boyfriend. The Life article had a whole page of slang and it’s translation into formal language which people found endlessly fascinating at that time.

     Bringing up Baby is considered to be one of the all time great screwball comedies. Katherine Hepburn plays a ditsy socialite trying to capture her prey: an academic paleontologist played by Cary Grant. She drags him into all kinds of adventures in rural Connecticut.

     These three movies have two things in common. They are all screwball romantic comedies and they were all directed by Howard Hawks before he directed The Big Sleep. It isn't surprising that Hawks couldn't help inserting a sub story of romantic comedy between Bogart and Bacall into this grim murder detective mystery.

     What makes the Big Sleep scenes between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall into screwball comedy? There are many examples. When Bogart meets Bacall for the first time she spars with him immediately saying he looks like a mess. When he says he could come in next time with stilts and a white coat and a tennis racket she retorts in typical wisecracking screwball banter "I doubt that even that would help." All Phillip Marlowe cares about is repeating that her father offered her a drink trying to get another one from her. Lauren Bacall (Mrs. Vivian Rutledge) remarks that she doesn't like his manners. He tells her to stop cross examining him. "Do you always think you can handle people like a trained seal?" asks Rutledge. Marlowe replies, "Yeah and I usual get away with it too." and she replies, "I'm sure I don't care what you say Mr. Marlowe."

     On one level the movie is about the investigation into underground and the many murders. On the other level it's the battle of the sexes between Bogart and Bacall. When Marlowe brings Carmen home from the Geiger murder Rutledge can only dig him about being insolent. In their encounter when Marlowe gets her mad he stops her from hitting him saying “I don't slap so good this time of night. “ She responds "You go too far Marlowe." Marlowe replies "Those are harsh words to throw at a man especially when he's walking out of your bedroom." By this time there is no question that this is a heated courtship going on between them.

     Fighting is natural to Hawk’s heroes. So love exists even where there is perpetual opposition; it is a bitter duel whose constant dangers are ignored by men of passion. Out of the contest comes esteem-that admirable word encompassing knowledge, appreciation and sympathy: the opponent becomes the partner. 4

     Before we get back to Humphrey Bogart and Bacall there are numerous other women peppered through the movie flirting with Bogart. There is the bookseller with the glasses, the eager cab driver, the hat check girls at the club, and the librarian. The librarian says Marlowe doesn't look like he collects first editions. Marlowe replies that he also collects blondes in bottles too. When Carmen says he is cute Marlowe replies with a line no real detective would come up with off the cuff. "I have a Balinese dancing girl tattooed across my chest." The more you watch the movie the more you see these little bits of comedy that Hawks slips in.

     When Rutledge is waiting in Marlowe’s office she tells him she thinks he is a guy who doesn't sleep like Marcel Proust. “You wouldn't know him he's a French writer.” Marlowe replies, “Welcome to my boudoir.” as he invites her into his office. She makes fun of his plain office and when she is talking he tells her to go ahead and scratch her leg.
    Comedies became the fashion. Here the genteel tradition is “knocked for a loop”: heroes and heroines are neither ladylike and gentlemanly. They hit each other, throw each other down, mock each other, play with each other. These films are sophisticated, full of hitting, bright dialogue, slapstick action- all imbued with terrific energy. 5
     When she calls the cops he grabs the phone and pretends he doesn't know what they are talking about. "There isn't any Sergeant Reilly here talk to my mother.” Rutledge takes the phone, “What was that you said? My father should hear this." They continue razzing and confusing the police pretending to be outraged by the police frustrated response. This scene steps out of the film noir genre and turns into full slapstick screwball comedy. This may actually be one of the great screwball routines of all time. It rivals the Who's on First  skit of Abbott and Costello.

     On the way out Mrs. Rutledge notices that the door is locked. Marlowe says "Well it wasn't intentional." Rutledge slyly wisecracks back "Why don't you try it some time?"
 
    Though this is a detective story it seems that the writers made sure that Rutledge and Marlowe run into each other over and over throughout the movie. When they are in Joe Brody's apartment Rutledge comes out of the kitchen and cavalierly pushes Joe’s gun aside like it was a toy.

      There is a scene added in the middle of the film that wasn’t in the original release. Thus is an important scene. Bacall makes a grand entrance into the jazzy bar carrying her mink coats. There is a long tracking shot showing her walking past all the customers as she finally gets to Bogart. Bacall walks into the nightclub like a goddess in her mink coat. Cigarette smoke fills the air like incense offered up to Aphrodite.  She orders drinks from Max the waiter she knows. They sit down and the camera moves in for tight shots as Bacall gives Bogart a $500 check to close the case. Then the business meeting turns into a date. They compare each other to race horses.

      Rutledge says, "Well Speaking of horses I like to play them myself but I like to see them work out for a bit. I like to see if they are front runners or come from behind. Find out what their whole card is, what makes them run." Rutledge describes Bogart. "You look to open up in front, take the lead, take a breather in the back stretch and then come home free." Then she asks about his appraisal of her. Bogart replies, "I can't tell until I've seen you over a distance of ground. You've got a touch of class but I don't know how far you can go." She says, “A lot depends on who's in the saddle." They smoke and light each other's cigarettes during this flirtation. "Go ahead Marlowe I like the way you work. In case you don't know it you're doing alright." When he asks her about Eddie Marrs she leaves.

      The cops on the phone scene was done in one take from one angle. During this nightclub scene there are over a dozen jump cuts of the two of them from different angles and distances. The variety of shots is a way to keep the audience visually interested. This was long before MTV took this concept to absurd limits.

     When Marlowe goes up to Eddie Marr's casino sure enough he walks in and lo and behold there is Mrs. Rutledge again singing a popular song ‪And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine by Anita O'Day with the house band. She takes up gambling and asks Marlowe to take her home after supposedly winning $28,000. When he presses her about her relationship with Eddie Marrs again she gets mad and he drops her off.

    There are two interesting events late in the movie where noir morphs into romance. When Marlowe goes up to the secluded gas station and gets worked over by the hoods and is brought into the house there it is no surprise that there is Mrs. Rutledge again. This is backed up by a dramatic noir musical score. When Marlowe kisses Mrs. Rutledge and gets her to cut him loose the dramatic score suddenly turns to romantic music for the first time in the movie. When the crooks return the score reverts back to drama.

      In the car getting away Rutledge professes her love and Marlowe remarks "You looked good back there. I didn't know they made them like that anymore." After Marrs gets shot Marlowe says he will do the talking to the cops. Rutledge replies "you forgot about one thing. Me!" "What's wrong with you?" asks Marlowe. Rutledge replies "Nothing you can't fix!" At that moment we hear a police siren but in an instance they look at each other romantically. The romantic comedy and noir genres which existed separately within the movie are fused together for the last few seconds of the film.

     Several books and articles say that though prolific Howard Hawks was not an innovator and only worked in already establish genres.
On one level, Hawk’s lack of originality is quite staggering. In a career spanning 40 years, he has given to the cinema not a single innovation. 6
    There may be some truth to that statement. Hawks did work in established genres. I believe, however, that the man who produced such diverse films as Twentieth Century, Land of the Pharaohs, and Scarface  is underrated. What he did in the Big Sleep was to brilliantly weave two genres he had experience with together into what is supposedly just a film noir detective movie.

BIBLOGRAPHY
 
1 Fay, Jennifer  and Nieland, Justus. Noir  Fay New York: Routledge, 2010.  page 184.
 
2 Duncan, Paul. Film Noir  England: Pocketbook Essentials, 2006. Page 12
 
3 Byrge, Duane. The Screwball Comedy Films London UK: McFarland & CO. 1991. page. 2
 
4 Rivett, James “The genius of Howard Hawks” Cahiers du Cinema 23, Paris: 1953. Page 130.
 
5 Renzi, Thomas C. Screwball Comedy and Film Noir. London UK: McFarland & CO., 2012. page. 6
6 Wood, Robin. Howard Hawks 1981. Page 5