# The Big Sleep **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 30, 2023, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797 "2023-05-30T23:55:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2023, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/1 "2023-05-30T23:55:20Z")
I’ve probably watched this Bogart/Bacall classic 100 times. I swear I have no idea what’s it’s about. It was on TCM today so once again I had it on. I was doing numerous other things while it was playing. I think I understand it better now. Mostly it’s a love story. IMO I’m so happy I know this now. ☺ ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/2 "2023-05-31T00:01:16Z")
From Wikipedia: > Midway through filming, Hawks and the cast realized that they did not know whether the chauffeur Owen Taylor had killed himself or was murdered. A cable was sent to Chandler, who told his friend Jamie Hamilton in a March 21, 1949 letter: “They sent me a wire … asking me, and dammit I didn’t know either”. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/3 "2023-05-31T00:19:51Z")
Psst. Bacall ain’t talking about horse racing… ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/4 "2023-05-31T00:30:48Z")
I read the book some years ago. It was pretty good, minus the sexism and homophobia. I liked the way the emotional expression was very understated. IIRC the book was not a love story. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/5 "2023-05-31T00:51:00Z")
I thought we agreed that movie sucked eggs like an untrainable Coon-Dog. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/6 "2023-05-31T01:04:29Z")
The book was put together from three separate pulp stories and so is the movie. In the movie the first story is terrific, the second story is so-so, and the third story should have every frame scratched out. Once you start thinking about the movie as three shorts pasted together, then everything makes sense. Except why Bogart does anything he does in the third story. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/7 "2023-05-31T01:52:48Z")
Yes, it sucks eggs. True love often does.🫣 ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/8 "2023-05-31T01:56:23Z")
Eye see what you did there… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/9 "2023-05-31T02:00:55Z")
I spy with my purple eye… (Well, blue) ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/10 "2023-05-31T02:16:42Z")
It’s really about dirty books. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/11 "2023-05-31T10:59:55Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I read the book some years ago. It was pretty good, minus the sexism and homophobia. Yeah–in the late nineties I read a whole bunch of Raymond Chandler. He was a genius with similes, and cracked me up on every page, and was kind of a nasty bigot. I want to reread him someday, but need to gird my loins. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/12 "2023-05-31T15:53:22Z")
Spoilers follow. Marlowe shooting Canino six times in the tummy is my favorite scene in the film. Here is the [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Sleep) on the novel, which pretty well covers things. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/13 "2023-05-31T16:54:52Z")
“Did you ever get get bit by a bee?” Oh. Wait. Different movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/14 "2023-05-31T17:14:28Z")
I’m STILL wondering what a hand throttle is… ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/15 "2023-05-31T17:15:29Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Psst. Bacall ain’t talking about horse racing… “Put your lips together and blow/.” Lucky horse. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/16 "2023-05-31T17:36:35Z")
The Robert Mitchum remake, which by coincidence I saw earlier this week, is more faithful to the book, but transferred to then-modern-day England - which makes all characters look like fish-out-of-water, all these rich miserable Americans, all of them living in England for some unspecified reason when they could be living in LA. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/17 "2023-06-01T03:41:15Z")
Carmen likely killed the chauffeur for rejecting her advances, as she did with Vivian’s husband and she attempted to do to Marlowe after he kicked her out of his apartment. It’s why Marlowe tells Vivian she’ll have to be institutionalized at the end of the story. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/18 "2023-06-01T16:09:37Z")
That’s “a _dead_ bee” ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/19 "2023-06-01T17:20:53Z")
Oh , yeah. My error. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2023, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797/20 "2023-06-02T04:01:35Z")
I read somewhere (may have even been here) that _The Big Sleep_ is almost a prototype for the future James Bond movies. He’s a tough guy, works alone, is always two steps ahead of everyone else in knowing what’s going on, has a quip for every situation, and every woman he meets throws herself at him. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-sleep/984797.md?page=2)