the big sleep

The Big Sleep is credited as a classic film-noir, as well as a masterpiece of the genre. While there are many people complaining about the quality of the screenplay adapted by William Faulkner from Raymond Chandler's novel with the same name, blaming a plot which is extremely difficult to follow or even to understand, the movie is, in my opinion, one of the best i've watched in the genre.

Now, as far as the plot difficulties are concerned, several readings i've done recently indicated a clear reason. The movie was originally shot in December 1944, shortly after Bogart and Bacall's another classic "To have and have not". The latter was a big hit, and Bogart-Bacall couple was very well received by the public. Maybe that's why i liked so much the presentation in "The Big Sleep" trailer, which said something like: "Bogart and that woman Bacall are in that again".

"The Big Sleep" was supposed to be released in 1945, but, despite the success of "To have and have not", Warner Bros. decided to postpone the moment, due to Bacall's "Confidential Agent" (released in 1945) being received by the audience as a flop. While holding "The Big Sleep" back, Warner Bros. operated some major changes in the movie, in order to adapt it more to the recipe that turned "To have and have not" into a public's favourite. And that implied adding some scenes of dialogue between the main characters (maybe the most memorable being the conversation on horse racing). However, this improvement has severe consequences on the plot's continuity, since scenes which could have helped the viewer figure out the mistery were cut off, in order to allow the longer dialogue scenes, and not lenghten the movie too much. From what i read, the original 1945 version was traced back in 1945, and made available in 1997.