The Big Sleep (1946 film) The Big Sleep (1946 film) The Big Sleep is a 1946 film noir directed by Howard Hawks, the first film version of Raymond Chandler's 1939 novel of the same name. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in a story about the "process of a criminal investigation, not its results." William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay. In 1997, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and added it to the National Film Registry. Because the film was scheduled for release a
The Big Sleep (1946 film) a tone of voice that keeps its distance, and yet is wry and humorous and cares. In a 1997 review, Eric Brace of "The Washington Post" wrote that the 1945 original had a "slightly slower pace than the one released a year later, and a touch less zingy interplay between Bogart and Bacall, but it's still an unqualified masterpiece." In 2003, AFI named protagonist Philip Marlowe the 32nd greatest hero in film. "Empire" magazine added "The Big Sleep" to their Masterpiece collection in the October 2007 issue. The film placed 202nd on the 2012 "Sight & Sound" critics' poll of