The Big Sleep The Big Sleep The Big Sleep (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los Angeles. The story is noted for its complexity, with characters double-crossing one another and secrets being exposed throughout the narrative. The title is a euphemism for death; it refers to a rumination about "sleeping the big sleep" in the final pages of the book. In 1999, the book was voted 96th of "Le Monde"s "100 Books of the
Fear (1946 film) Fear (1946 film) Fear is a 1946 low-budget film noir directed by Alfred Zeisler. The film is considered a loose adaptation of Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment". A broke medical student in desperate need of tuition money sells everything he owns to a dishonest professor. When the student's scholarship is suddenly taken from him, he flies into a rage and kills the professor, whom he feels is responsible for his situation. His life then begins to improve, but as the student grows more reckless, police suspicion continues to grow. Film historians Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward give the film a positive