The Big Sleep (1946)

 "I don't slap so good around this time of the evening..."

I'm beginning, now I've seen enough 1940s film noirs to at least begin to have opinions about them, to bloody love them. Oh, some of the social attitudes of this film have dated a bit- see the quote. But the writing, the direction, the acting, the dialogue... these are real people, and the film feels somehow more modern and more grown-up than any modern film. Then again, William bloody Faulkner co-scripted.

I've read the original novel, but in another century. I remembered literally nothing so watched the film unspoiled, but loved all the Raymond Chandler tropes- the several femme fatales in this film; the witty dialogue; the fact that, should thinhgs be threatening tomfizzle out, a man with a gun will appear.

Yet the complex and very Chandleresque plot- at once intricate and probably improvised- comes across well on film. And the chemistry, and very unconventional romance, sort of, between Marlowe and Vivian Rutledge, is exquisite. But we know that Bogart and Bacall are always going to be sublime. It seems they were having an affair during filming. That's not surprising.

Martha Vickers deserves enormous praise too, though, as a decadent drug addicted spoiled little rich girl. She's extraordinatry. And so are the twists and turns of the plot. You can even forgive the film for featuring loads and loads of torrential rain.., in LA.

This film is superb. If you haven't seen it, do so. It really is that good.