The Big Sleep (1946 film) E. Jackson were completely eliminated. Because of the two versions created by the re-shooting, there is a substantial difference in content of some twenty minutes between them, although the difference in running time is two minutes. Novelist Raymond Chandler said Martha Vickers (Carmen) overshadowed Lauren Bacall (Vivian) in their scenes together, which led the producers to delete much of Vickers' performance to enhance Bacall's. The re-shot, re-edited and revised "The Big Sleep" was finally released on 23 August 1946. The cinematic release of "The Big Sleep" is regarded as more successful than the 1945 pre-release version (see below), even though
The Big Sleep (1978 film) "senselessly gaudy" and "overloaded with big names, and in this case the net effect of an all-star cast is to make an already confusing mystery even harder to follow." Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "All of the zigs and zags of the original story are in the remake; what's missing is the enthusiasm. Talented actors such as Edward Fox and Oliver Reed sleepwalk through their parts." Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" panned the film as "a flat, routine procedural detective mystery utterly devoid of any "film noir"