Unraveling the Dark Mysteries of Los Angeles

This is how it all started…

The Big Sleep is a 1946 American film noir directed by Howard Hawks. William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman co-wrote the screenplay, which adapts Raymond Chandler‘s 1939 novel. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private detective Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge in a story that begins with blackmail and leads to multiple murders.

Initially produced in late 1944, the film’s release was delayed by over a year due to the studio wanting to release war films in anticipation of the end of World War II. A cut was released to servicemen overseas in 1945 shortly after its completion. During its delay, Bogart and Bacall married and Bacall was cast in Confidential Agent. When that movie failed, reshoots were done in early 1946 meant to take advantage of the public’s fascination with «Bogie and Bacall».

The Big Sleep was finally released by Warner Bros. on August 31, 1946. The film was a critical and commercial success, and led to two more «Bogie and Bacall» films by Warner Bros.: Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948). In 1997, the original 1945 cut was restored and released. That same year, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed the film «culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,» and added it to the National Film Registry.