Sat 21 Apr 2007
THE BIG SLEEP: A Contemporaneous Movie Review from 1946.
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[5] Comments
Peter Rozovsky has just left a comment after my review of Step by Step, posted about this same time yesterday. Peter found what NY Times movie critic Bosley Crowther said about the film to be very interesting. (Crowther didn’t like it very much, and he said so.)
What’s even more interesting is that in the same column Crowther also reviewed the film version of The Big Sleep, which many people today find one of the classics of the hard-boiled private eye genre. He didn’t care for this one either, and he said so – and at even greater length. You can read the entire review online yourself, and you should, but here are some excerpts:
For 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. What with two interlocking mysteries and a great many characters involved, the complex of blackmail and murder soon becomes a web of utter bafflement. Unfortunately, the cunning script-writers have done little to clear it at the end.
[…]
Through it all, Humphrey Bogart stalks his cold and laconic way as the resolute private detective who has a mind and a body made of steel. And Lauren Bacall (Mrs. Bogart) plays the older of the daughters languidly. (Miss Bacall is a dangerous looking female, but she still hasn’t learned to act.) A dozen or so other actors play various tramps and tough guys acidly, and the whole thing comes off a poisonous picture lasting a few minutes shy of two hours.
On the other hand, to pick a critic whose comments are always handy, Leonard Maltin gives The Big Sleep four stars (****) and in part agreeing with Crowther says, “So convoluted even [Raymond] Chandler didn’t know who committed one murder,” then going on immediately to say, “but so incredibly entertaining that no one has ever cared. Powerhouse direction, unforgettable dialogue…”
I realize that it’s unfair not to give Mr. Crowther a chance to reconsider – and later on perhaps he did. No one always gets everything right the first time, and I do mean no one.
And, just in case you might be wondering, Mr. Maltin gives Step by Step two stars (**), but other than a one line summary of the plot, his only critical judgment is that it is a “patriotic programmer.”
April 21st, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Wow, even better. Thanks. Critical fashions change; whether they change faster or more slowly at highbrow publications, I have no idea.
Without knowing much about the body of Mr. Crowther’s work (Somehow it feels right to use New York Times style on courtesy titles when writing about him), the worst I can say is that he was not ahead of his time. He wrote before atmosphere assumed the position of supremacy it enjoys now, perhaps at the expense of story. It is significant that he singles out the scriptwriters for scorn. A decade or two later, a critic in his position would likely have targeted a director instead.
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
April 22nd, 2007 at 9:37 am
Very interesting. Thanks for pointing it out.
April 22nd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Peter, You’ve put your finger right on the heart of things. If anyone from now on doubts the value of going back and re-reading old movie reviews, I’ll just send them your post. Thanks! — Steve
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Mike Grost sent me a message by email which he’s agreed to have me post as a comment:
On “The Big Sleep”: I agree with Bosley Crowther. The 1946 Version 2 is totally incomprehensible. It can drive one right up the wall. There are two versions of “The Big Sleep”. Version 1 (1945) was relatively coherent. It was released to the armed forces, but not the public. Then Hawks drastically cut exposition, and scenes with cop Regis Toomey, added a lot of Bacall material, and created Version 2 (1946). This was released in USA, was the only version seen by most people for decades. It has a plot that cannot be understood at all! A book on Hawks has quotes from dozens of reviewers around the world for decades – all completely baffled!
Version 1 survived in archives however – and a couple of years ago was restored. Both versions are shown on TCM. I much prefer the clear version 1 – also like the male bonding between Bogart and Toomey.
>> And from a followup email, after I suggested that perhaps Bosley Crowther was simply in the habit of taking B-movies and crime films too lightly —
On Bosley C: he is one of the least admired reviewers of all time. He had honesty and integrity – and almost no insight into films. And he did condescend to all entertainment films. I was amazed this morning to find my self agreeing with him…
Mike
May 12th, 2007 at 10:38 am
[…] As a followup to an earlier discussion about the movie version of The Big Sleep here on the Mystery*File blog: Trailer for The Big Sleep. […]