For years, I thought I was going out of my mind every time I saw this classic detective story/film noir. Each time it screened on TV, it seemed to be different. New scenes would crop up; scenes I was certain I had seen in the past were suddenly missing. And always, the plot made no real sense.
Blame it all on Lauren Bacall. She'd been a huge hit in "To Have and to Have Not," playing opposite Bogart in her screen debut. So Warners, eager to capitalize on her natural sex appeal, had rushed her into another film, "Confidential Agent," where she played opposite Charles Boyer. They, it turned out, had no chemistry and the picture bombed. But by the time that had happened, Bogie and Betty had wrapped Bacall's third film, "The Big Sleep." So Warners held up its release so they could shoot some new scenes that would make Bacall look good.
The result was that a couple of different versions of this classic exist today and when you toss in the cutting for TV, you wind up with a mishmash of scenes that leave you guessing as to what the film is all about, who killed whom, and how could writers of the caliber of Raymond Chandler (author of the original novel) William Faulkner and Jules Furthman come up with this mess.
My favorite scene takes place at the rural gambling casino operated by Eddie Mars. There, in a side room, we come upon Bacall singing an obviously heavily rehearsed song with a whole group of backup singers providing harmony. There is no prior reference to Bacall's character being a singer and no further reference to her song in the rest of the movie.
But the real stunner is Eddie Mars' blond wife, played in her one and only scene toward the end of the film, by different actresses in the two main versions of the film.
Never mind. This picture has lots of crackling good Howard Hawks style dialogue and a great, slick Warners film noir atmosphere. Both Bogie and Betty are at the top of their games and are surrounded by great supporting players, from Dorothy Malone to Elisha Cook Jr and B-Western star Bob Steele, who was positively scary when he played a modern day killer.
Watch this one, because try as they might, nobody does this kind of work today.
Blame it all on Lauren Bacall. She'd been a huge hit in "To Have and to Have Not," playing opposite Bogart in her screen debut. So Warners, eager to capitalize on her natural sex appeal, had rushed her into another film, "Confidential Agent," where she played opposite Charles Boyer. They, it turned out, had no chemistry and the picture bombed. But by the time that had happened, Bogie and Betty had wrapped Bacall's third film, "The Big Sleep." So Warners held up its release so they could shoot some new scenes that would make Bacall look good.
The result was that a couple of different versions of this classic exist today and when you toss in the cutting for TV, you wind up with a mishmash of scenes that leave you guessing as to what the film is all about, who killed whom, and how could writers of the caliber of Raymond Chandler (author of the original novel) William Faulkner and Jules Furthman come up with this mess.
My favorite scene takes place at the rural gambling casino operated by Eddie Mars. There, in a side room, we come upon Bacall singing an obviously heavily rehearsed song with a whole group of backup singers providing harmony. There is no prior reference to Bacall's character being a singer and no further reference to her song in the rest of the movie.
But the real stunner is Eddie Mars' blond wife, played in her one and only scene toward the end of the film, by different actresses in the two main versions of the film.
Never mind. This picture has lots of crackling good Howard Hawks style dialogue and a great, slick Warners film noir atmosphere. Both Bogie and Betty are at the top of their games and are surrounded by great supporting players, from Dorothy Malone to Elisha Cook Jr and B-Western star Bob Steele, who was positively scary when he played a modern day killer.
Watch this one, because try as they might, nobody does this kind of work today.