X
- 1946
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 54 m
- 1946
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 54 m
Summary Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.
Directed By: Howard Hawks
- 1946
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 54 m
- 1946
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 54 m
The Big Sleep
8.0
Where to Watch
Summary Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.
Directed By: Howard Hawks
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
86
95% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 19 Critic Reviews
86
95% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
5% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The Big Sleep is the best scripted, best directed, best acted, and least comprehensible film noir ever made. [27 Aug 2004]
THE BIG SLEEP comes magically alive through Hawks's careful direction and Bogart's persona, which is twin to his character of Philip Marlowe.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
8.0
90% Positive
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
10% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
8.0
90% Positive
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
0% Mixed
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
10% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
It is one of the great film noirs, a black-and-white symphony that exactly reproduces Chandler's ability, on the page, to find a tone of voice that keeps its distance, and yet is wry and humorous and cares.
It is by far Bogart's most successfully playful role.
Brittle Chandler characters have been transferred to the screen with punch by Howard Hawks' production and direction, providing full load of rough, tense action most of the way.
The movie's disturbing labyrinthine story of murder and betrayal now looks like a fable by David Lynch: and the witty, charged dialogue between the leads shows that no screen couple, before or since, had as much chemistry as Bogart and Bacall.
The Big Sleep is one of those pictures in which so many cryptic things occur amid so much involved and devious plotting that the mind becomes utterly confused. And, to make it more aggravating, the brilliant detective in the case is continuously making shrewd deductions which he stubbornly keeps to himself.
Production Company
Warner Bros.
Release Date Aug 31, 1946
Duration 1 h 54 m
Rating Approved
Tagline The type of man she hated . . . was the type she wanted !
Awards
National Film Preservation Board, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Online Film & Television Association
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
