The Big Sleep (1946)

Release date: 1946-08-31
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Howard Hawks
Production Co: Warner Bros.
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: 7.9/10
Length: 1h 54min

Storyline

P.I. Philip Marlowe's hired by a wealthy general to find out and stop his daughter, Carmen from being blackmailed over gambling debts, Marlowe finds himself deep within a web of love triangles, blackmail, murder, gambling, and organised crime. With help from Vivian (another of the general's daughters), Marlowe hatches a plot to free the family from this web and trap the real culprit.

Plot Keywords

private eye, bookstore, based on novel, greenhouse, sister sister relationship, brandy, bead curtain, taxi, prank telephone call, reference to marcel proust, reference to peter pan, murder, blackmail, private detective, assault, missing person, world war one veteran, police, hold up, gangster

Short Review

It is a fast-moving drama, knee-deep in corpses, as tough as they come. It is rather'difficult to keep track of who is murdering whom and why, but there is not time to worry about such details with so many bullets flying around.