Critic Reviews
Big Sleep, The (1946) Rank 3 Reviews
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San Francisco Examiner (Barbara Shulgasser)
HUMPHREY BOGART has the distinction of being one of those actors whom many of us admire in spite of the fact that in most of his movies he doesn't seem to do much acting.
This is probably less true of his later work, including odd roles such as the ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at San Francisco Examiner (Barbara Shulgasser)
Crazy for Cinema
ummoned by the dying General Sternwood, Philip Marlowe is asked to deal with several problems that are troubling his family. Marlowe finds that each problem centers about the disappearance of Sternwood's favoured employee who has left with a mobster's ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Crazy for Cinema
DVD Verdict
Black film-that's the English translation of film noir, the French term for the stylish crime thrillers of the 1940s. The moniker is more appropriately translated "dark film," for the movies are dark in every way. ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at DVD Verdict
The BigScreen Cinema Guide - Reader Reviews
Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at The BigScreen Cinema Guide - Reader Reviews
Stinky Cinema
Hot sex in back rooms with beautiful babes. Naughty nymphets flirting in front rooms. More murders than one can count. Intrigue. Suspense. Passion. No job is too hard or too big for Philip Marlowe, Private ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Stinky Cinema
Max Scheinin
Charles Laughton's The Night Of The Hunter and Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep are two primary examples of the genre known as film noir. During the 40s and 50s film noirs were produced regularly in America. They featured grotesque men who lurked in shadows, ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Max Scheinin
The Tech (MIT) (Stephen Brophy)
LSC starts off its fall Classics series tonight with The Big Sleep (1946), one of the Hollywood studio movies that created the archetypal Humphrey Bogart persona. Starting with The Maltese Falcon in 1941, Bogart constructed a character of experience who ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at The Tech (MIT) (Stephen Brophy)
filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller)
Plot Details: This epinion reveals everything about the movie's plot
"The Big Sleep" is the second of four films that Humphrey Bogart made with Lauren Bacall. It is also the second most famous detective film that Bogart made, after "The Maltese ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller)
Frankie Paiva
A groundbreaking film in the amount of violence that is used and the way the film is shot. Now I'm no expert in classic film, but to me, it contains a lot more violence than any film I've seen made in or before 1946. Scenes between Bogart and Bacall are ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Frankie Paiva
Brilliant Observations on 1173 Films (Clayton Trapp)
Definitive film noire, but before we get into it let me introduce the band. On sandy lead vocals, fists, and fast-paced repartee of all kinds...Humphrey Bogart! Humphrey Bogart, man of the people, just doesn't like 'em or wanna be one himself. On rhthym ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Brilliant Observations on 1173 Films (Clayton Trapp)
Movie Mirror (Sanderson Beck)
Based on Raymond Chandler's novel, a private detective is hired to handle a blackmailer and discovers a series of murders and killings.
Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is a shamus and meets seductive Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers). General ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Movie Mirror (Sanderson Beck)
Boulder Weekly (Thomas Delapa)
It matters not that even the writers (including William Faulkner) weren't sure who shot whom in Hawks' rousing adaptation of the Raymond Chandler detective novel. ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Boulder Weekly (Thomas Delapa)
Foster on Film - Film Noir
Normally, a review would include some general plot synopsis at this point, but that's something that can't be done with The Big Sleep. It's not at all clear what the plot is. I can say that hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe (played by Humphrey Bogart ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Foster on Film - Film Noir
Classic Film Guide
O.K., so no one really knows what happened in this film (e.g. the actual solution to the mystery is still being debated today, and apparently wasn't known at the time either;-). It's still a classic, with Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe investigating a ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Classic Film Guide
Teleport City
The Big Sleep
1946, United States. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, Peggy Knudsen, Regis Toomey, Charles Waldron, Charles D. Brown, Bob Steele, Elisha Cook Jr., Louis Jean Heydt. Directed by Howard ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Teleport City
Teleport City Cinematics
1946, United States. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Dorothy Malone, Peggy Knudsen, Regis Toomey, Charles Waldron, Charles D. Brown, Bob Steele, Elisha Cook Jr., Louis Jean Heydt. Directed by Howard Hawks. Written ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Teleport City Cinematics
Movie House Commentary
1946 version
Of all the movies considered to be all-time classics, the Bogart version of The Big Sleep is possibly the most downright awful.
Don't get me wrong. I love the film because of its great strengths.
* Bogart is one of the most, ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Movie House Commentary
Film Noir of the Week
We still don't know how much torment and difficulty accompanied the process that created The Big Sleep, despite the evidence contained in the 1945 version unearthed several years ago. ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Film Noir of the Week
BBC Films (Almar Haflidason)
Despite the title, "The Big Sleep" will not send you nodding off. This absorbing and handsome thriller is a must-see that receives a good DVD release.
Humphrey Bogart plays Chandler's gumshoe, Philip Marlowe, called upon to investigate a case of ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at BBC Films (Almar Haflidason)
DVDTown (John J. Puccio)
Private eye," "private investigator," "private detective," "shamus," and "Doghouse Reilly" are among the various terms Humphrey Bogart uses to describe himself as P.I. Philip Marlowe. Author Raymond Chandler's 1939 fictional creation was brought to the ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at DVDTown (John J. Puccio)
Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
Two of the names mentioned most often in Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" (1946) are Owen Taylor and Sean Regan. One is the chauffeur for the wealthy Sternwood family. The other is an Irishman hired by old Gen. Sternwood "to do his drinking for him." ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
Gotterdammerung
The first Chandler novel goes to the big screen with Humphrey Bogart perhaps the quintessential Marlowe, the hard-boiled shamus. The film has a curious story, being shot in 1944 and not released until two years later with 18 minutes of footage reshot or ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Gotterdammerung
Edinburgh U Film Society (Mark Brown)
Private eye Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is hired by the ageing General Sternwood to sort out some "problems" his daughters have been experiencing. From then on things get complicated as Marlowe unravels the web of intrigue surrounding them, all the ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Edinburgh U Film Society (Mark Brown)
Crazy for Cinema (Lisa Skrzyniarz)
SYNOPSIS: Summoned by the dying General Sternwood, Philip Marlowe is asked to deal with several problems that are troubling his family. Marlowe finds that each problem centers about the disappearance of Sternwood's favoured employee who has left with a ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Crazy for Cinema (Lisa Skrzyniarz)
Washington Post (Eric Brace)
Don't try too hard to follow the story, just get swept away by the mood of the film. ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Washington Post (Eric Brace)
The Greatest Films (Tim Dirks)
The Big Sleep (1946) is one of Raymond Chandler's best hard-boiled detective mysteries transformed into a film noir, private detective film classic. This successful adaptation of Chandler's 1939 novel was from his first Philip Marlowe novel. [Chandler ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at The Greatest Films (Tim Dirks)
Time Out (--)
One of the finest mainstream noir-thrillers ever made. As Bogart's Marlowe gets involved with the Sternwood family's many problems (drugs, blackmail, nymphomania and murder), Hawks never allows the plot to get in the way of his real interest: the growing ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Time Out (--)
Washington Post (--)
An unqualified masterpiece. ...read the complete Big Sleep movie review at Washington Post (--)
User Reviews
by Louis J. Barbier ... on September 13, 2009
If you are going to buy a collection of some of the best Bogie movies than I strongly recommend this one! The real bonus is you have some great actors and actress in some of the roles! Then of course you will see Bacall playing opposite of Bogie and they ...
by Robert T. Lukomsk... on August 31, 2009
Can't go wrong with any of these four titles. All the better that they're boxed together. All four are quite good but very different from each other. I think fans of these two film stars will give a variety of opinions as to which of the four is the ...
by Mitchell S. Fried... on July 15, 2009
I LOVE Bogart and to see him act with the love of his life was a real treat. Two of these films-To Have and Have Not and Key Largo-should be in every Bogart fans' DVD collection. Unfortunately, The Big Sleep and Dark Passage do not measure up to the ...
by Janet Scott-mingh... on July 12, 2009
A must have for any Bogie and Bacall fan! It has amazing picture quality on our fifty inch screen.............Like seeing it for the first time in a classic old movie ...
by William R. Ray on June 15, 2009
Wow, some of the reviews are long-winded, huh? Humphrey Bogart has been called the greatest screen actor in history and this collection won't dull that image. With stories from Chandler and Hemingway, a screenplay from William Faulkner, direction from ...
by Kimberly A. Mckin... on April 05, 2009
This transaction was ...
by Rocky Roller on February 08, 2009
5 STARS Sit back with your wife; dim the lights and enjoy the show. You can actually feel the chemistry between the very lovely Lauren Bacall and handsome Humphrey Bogart. These two fine actors allow you to escape reality and forget all your troubles. ...
by A. H. Toskin on January 24, 2009
I ordered this last-minute as a Christmas present, but with the faster shipping rate, it got here just in time. The movies were safe and present for Christmas presents, and that's all that matters. So, good job. ...
by Wesley W. Byas "m... on January 11, 2009
As a die hard fan of Humphrey Bogart I must say this is an excellent collection of his films. ...
by Mark Sloan "Tone ... on January 10, 2009
Great old films that don't get played on cable movie channels. Why? Probably because they are in black and white, but to me that is one of the things that helps make these movies so fine. The directors and cinematographers had taken B&W to new heights of ...
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