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 the case now over, Marlowe goes to a local bar and orders several double Scotches. While drinking, he begins to think about Mona "Silver-Wig" Mars. He never sees her again. "The Big Sleep", like most of Chandler's novels, was written by what he called "cannibalizing" his short stories. Chandler would take stories he had already published in the pulp magazine "Black Mask" and rework them into a coherent novel. For "The Big Sleep", the two main stories that form the core of the novel are "Killer in the Rain" (published in 1935) and "The Curtain" (published in 1936). Although the