Trivia and Other Fun Stuff on THE BIG SLEEP

Philip Marlowe's habit of feeling his earlobe while in deep thought was something Humphrey Bogart incorporated from his own behavior.

Although Raymond Chandler thought Martha Vickers stole the film as Carmen, she failed to capitalize on her performance. Few directors besides Howard Hawks knew how to get such unbridled sexuality past the censors, and she herself preferred playing nice girl roles. Hawks had great hopes for her (and allegedly even had an affair with her), but eventually lost all interest in grooming her for stardom.

Re-shooting scenes a year later meant having to recast one role in The Big Sleep, Eddie Mars' wife, Mona. Originally played by Pat Clark, the role was re-shot with Peggy Knudsen.

Leigh Brackett was inspired to write her first detective novel -- No Good from a Corpse, the book that won her the job writing The Big Sleep -- after seeing Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (1941).

Gangster Eddie Mars' henchmen, Sid and Pete, are named for Bogart's frequent co-stars and off-screen friends Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

Bogart had to wear platform shoes to appear taller than his two leading ladies, Lauren Bacall and Martha Vickers. That may be the reason both women taunt him about his lack of height.

The film's box office success put Hawks in a position to demand an unprecedented level of freedom for a Hollywood director, allowing him to incorporate his own production company and shop projects to the highest bidder. Other directors would follow suit.

The Big Sleep marked the second teaming of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who had burned up screens two years earlier in To Have and Have Not (1944), also directed by Hawks. They would hook up again for the film noir Dark Passage (1947) and the gangster drama Key Largo (1948).

The Big Sleep was one of only two Warner Bros. films on which future Nobel Prize-winner William Faulkner received credit as a screenwriter. The other, To Have and Have Not, also starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and was directed by Hawks.

by Frank Miller

Famous Quotes from THE BIG SLEEP

"You're not very tall, are you?"
"Well, I, uh, I try to be." -- Martha Vickers, as Carmen Sternwood, sizing up Humphrey Bogart, as Philip Marlowe.

"Nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy." -- Charles Waldron, as General Sternwood, offering Bogart, as Philip Marlowe, a drink.

"I need hardly add that any man who has lived as I have and indulges for the first time in parenthood at the age of 55 deserves all he gets." -- Waldron, as General Sternwood.

"Then she tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up." - Bogart, as Marlowe, describing Carmen's behavior.

"So you're a private detective. I didn't know they existed, except in books -- or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors." -- Lauren Bacall, as Vivian Rutledge, to Bogart.

"You ought to wean her. She's old enough." -- Bogart, commenting on Vickers.

"I don't like your manners."
"And I'm not crazy about yours. I didn't ask to see you. I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them long winter evenings." -- Bacall, as Vivien Sternwood, sparring with Bogart.

"So you do get up, I was beginning to think you worked in bed like Marcel Proust."
"Who's he?"
"You wouldn't know him, a French writer."
"Come into my boudoir." -- Bacall, as Vivian, inspiring Bogart to show off his class.

"My, my, my, such a lot of guns around town and so few brains. You know, you're the second guy I've met today that seems to think a gat in the hand means the world by the tail." -- Bogart.

"If you can use me again sometime, call this number."
"Day and night?"
"Uh, night's better. I work during the day." -- Joy Barlow, as the taxi driver, coming on to Bogart.

"Did I hurt you much, sugar?"
"You and every other man I've ever met." -- Bogart trying to make nice with Sonia Darrin, as Agnes.

"Speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them work out a little first, see if they're front runners or come from behind, find out what their whole card is, what makes them run."
"Find out mine?"
"I think so."
"Go ahead."
"I'd say you don't like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a little lead, take a little breather in the backstretch, and then come home free."
"You don't like to be rated yourself."
"I haven't met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?"
"Well, I can't tell till I've seen you over a distance of ground. You've got a touch of class, but I don't know how, how far you can go."
"A lot depends on who's in the saddle." -- Bacall and Bogart, discussing horse racing, among other things.

"Too many people told me to stop." -- Bogart, explaining why he refused to drop the case.

"What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing you can't fix." -- Bogart and Bacall, facing the future together as the film ends.

Compiled by Frank Miller