The definitive Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall vehicle, The Big Sleep casts Bogart as Raymond Chandler's cynical private eye Philip Marlowe. Summoned to the home of the fabulously wealthy General Sternwood (Charles Waldron), Marlowe is hired to deal with a blackmailer shaking down the General's sensuous, thumb-sucking daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers). This earns Marlowe the displeasure of Carmen's sloe-eyed, seemingly straight-laced older sister Vivian (Bacall), who is fiercely protective of her somewhat addled sibling. As he pursues the case at hand, Marlowe gets mixed up in the murder of Arthur Geiger (Theodore von Eltz), a dealer in pornography. He also runs afoul of gambling-house proprietor Eddie Mars (John Ridgely), who seems to have some sort of hold over the enigmatic Vivian. Any further attempts to outline the plot would be futile: the storyline becomes so complicated and convoluted that even screenwriters William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthmann were forced to consult Raymond Chandler for advice (he was as confused by the plot as the screenwriters). When originally prepared for release in 1945, The Big Sleep featured a long exposition scene featuring police detective Bernie Ohls (Regis Toomey) explaining the more obscure plot details. This expository scene was ultimately sacrificed, along with several others, in favor of building up Bacall's part; for instance, a climactic sequence was reshot to emphasize sexual electricity between Bogart and Bacall, obliging Warners to replace a supporting player who'd gone on to another project. The end result was one of the most famously baffling film noirs but also one of the most successful in sheer star power.
Code:
STARS.........: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely DIRECTOR......: Howard Hawks WRITERS.......: William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman GENRE.........: Crime, Film-Noir, Mystery TOMATOMETER...: 96 IMDB RATING...: 8.0/10 70,712 votes IMDB LINK.....: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038355 RUNTIME.......: 1h 53mn SIZE..........: 4.95 GB VIDEO CODEC...: HEVC ( [email protected]) BITRATE.......: 6000 Kbps (2-pass) RESOLUTION....: 1920x1080 ASPECT RATIO..: 1.37:1 FRAMERATE.....: 23.976 fps AUDIO.........: English AAC Mono 206kbps CVBR SUBTITLES.....: ENG CHAPTERS......: Yes SOURCE........: Blu Ray ENCODED BY....: Sartre ENCODE DATE...: 2018-05-26
Extras
• Introduction by Robert Gitt (480p,1:14) - The film archivist describes the discovery of the Pre-release version.
• 1945 Alternate Version (480p,1:56:18) - Though only two minutes longer, this version of The Big Sleep contains about twenty minutes of footage excised after the reshoots, including a lengthy scene in the office of Chief Inspector Ohls that helps illuminate the film's tangled plot.
• 1945/1946 Comparisons (480p,35:59) - After recounting the communications between Bacall's agent and Jack Warner that led to reshoots, Gitt methodically catalogs the changes made to the film, reel by reel. This extra was cut to 16:35 on the 2006 DVD.
• Theatrical Trailer (720p,1:50) - When Humphrey Bogart goes to the local library looking for a mystery as unusual as The Maltese Falcon, a comely librarian offers him a book "that has everything the Falcon had . . . and more!"
Sample Clip (Download file for actual quality)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1E9qKtu2qRndLu1xhzX0hgKn3R0kKTSdk
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