One of my favorite Noir films is The Big Sleep, 1946, from the 1939 novel by the king of risque LA pulp fiction, Raymond Chandler. Script adaptation was by the famous southern novelist William Faulkner, direction by Howard Hawks, with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Martha Vickers and Dorothy Malone.
Chandler’s books about private detective Philip Marlow were the closest thing to pornography that could legally be published at the time. Packed not with just the regular assertive Noir femme fatales, but with decidedly sexually aggressive female characters, (that was young Martha Vickers) The Big Sleep addressed taboo—and thus heavily censored—subjects such as pornography, the sexual enhancement apparatus known at the time as the Singapore Sling, homosexuality, bisexuality, BDSM, hard drug use (in the book, the girl played by Martha Vickers is found nude and helplessly strapped into a suspended “Sling”) – all in a web of love triangles, blackmail, murder, gambling, and organized crime. The film was so heavily censored that the plot is almost lost and requires multiple viewing to fully understand what it is actually about beyond a run-of-the-mill detective story. It is arguably the most “coded” film of the Noir period.
Here, Bogart and Bacall meet in a lounge and discuss “horses” starting at 01:35.
Horses
LOL. Make of that what you will.
In the book, Marlow enters Geiger’s Bookstore, a front for a highly illegal pornography operation. He disguises himself as a flamboyant homosexual in order not to be suspected as a “private dick.” Bogart took the Chandler/Faulkner scene and ran with it resulting in it being retaken multiple times due to on-set censors. Homosexuality in film was super-taboo. In the end Hawks discovered what the censors were really upset about: they had a problem with Bogart lisping too heavily, so Hawks suggested he lighten it up. Bogart did. Kinda:
Geiger Bookstore Scene
Dorothy Malone had been on screen for only 2 ½ years, acted in 14 films during that time, mostly in walk-ons and bit parts with only 3 credited roles. The Big Sleep was her Big Break and the 20 year-old actress was so nervous in her scene with big star Bogart that they had to weight the bottom of the liquor glass to dampen her shaking hands in this scene in the Acme Book Shop across the street from the pornographer’s studio:
Acme Bookstore Scene
Due to censorship, Bogart’s character can’t talk about the taboo subject of pornography on film and his description of what goes on across the street had to be re-written multiple times on the set—to both Faulkner’s and Chancelor’s loud protests—and the subject is smoothly diverted when Malone takes off her glasses. The conversation occurs at 00.45 in the above Acme Bookstore scene:
Malone: “Tell me more about this business.”
Bogart: “Well, there’s not much to tell, I, uh….
Malone: “What?”
Bogart: “I was just wondering if you have to, uh…” [Indicates her eye glasses.]
Malone: “Oh. Not necessarily.” [Removes glasses]
Bogart: “Well, Helloooo!”
LOL. Most people who saw the film and never read the novel were clueless as to what the film was actually about and it was murdered by equally clueless critics for being too hard to follow. People complain about this even today on the net.
I love this film for it’s reflection of the dated sensibilities of the period, the hoops Hawks had to jump through to make it, and the fun of decoding the dialogue. And besides all that, it really is a great detective film.
Ha. According to Lauren Bacall, production was such fun, that they got a memo from Jack L. Warner saying “Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop!”
Here’s Chandler’s novel, The Big Sleep:
http://www.paolocirio.net/work/amazon-noir/amazon-noir-books/AMAZON-NOIR--The_Big_Sleep--By--Raymond_Chandler--0394758285.pdf, in manuscript form, in PDF format.
Excellent digitized prints of the complete film can be seen for $2.99 at Vudu, iTunes, Amazon Video, or for free Here after downloading the plugin WowMovix onto Chrome. I have no idea what the plugin will do to your computer. I have my own copy downloaded from a torrent long ago. You might just want to pay the $2.99.
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