Great book. Question folks: Was there a version starring Robert Mitchum?? ( )

I was enjoying this book a whole lot, but then I got the bright idea of watching the movie (because Bogey and Bacall). Having seen it, all the air went out of my sails to finish the book. Which is unfortunate, because Chandler is an amazingly good stylist. Maybe I'll pick it up again one day. ( )

Neat, Clean, Shaved and Sober
Review of the Random House Audio audiobook (2020) narrated by Scott Brick of the original Alfred A. Knopf hardcover edition (1939)

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark little clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars. - Opening Lines from The Big Sleep

Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead.

Whoever had done it had meant business. Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.

It had the austere simplicity of fiction rather than the tangled wool of fact.

Then there was nothing bright or wriggling, just darkness and emptiness and a rushing wind and a falling as of great trees.

What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell.

Audible recently had another sale offer of one of 2020/21 Scott Brick narrations of the Raymond Chandler / Philip Marlowe audiobooks and I grabbed it immediately. I've previously enjoyed Farewell, My Lovely (Philip Marlowe #2) (1940) & The High Window (Philip Marlowe #3) (1942) from the same audiobook series.

The Big Sleep is rather notorious for its convoluted plot due to Raymond Chandler cannibalizing parts of several previously published short stories and forming them into the novel. You really need to keep a cast of characters list handy as the different shady types and femme fatales seem to keep piling up on top of each other and at times you wonder how it can possibly all tie in together, although it does, with a few loose ends. Famously, the director & writers of the 1946 screen version with Humphrey Bogart contacted Chandler to ask who had killed a certain character and Chandler said that even he didn't know.

See poster at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Bigsleep2.JPG/1024px-B...
Poster for the 1946 film adaptation of "The Big Sleep" starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Image sourced from Wikipedia

The plot starts off simply enough. Marlowe is asked by retired and infirm General Sternwood to investigate possible blackmail schemes against his two daughters Vivian and Carmen. Vivian is the tough-as-nails elder daughter and Carmen is the wild child. Vivian's husband Rusty Regan has also gone missing, but initially Marlowe isn't asked to search for him. The complications pile up as the detective also discovers gambling dens, pornography fronts, hired killers and murder. Miraculously all of the different plot strands are finally brought together, including the explanation for the missing Rusty Regan. Marlowe is left drinking double whiskys and mulling the case over at the end.

See book cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f9/RaymondChandler_TheBigSleep.jpg
Cover image of the original Alfred A Knopf hardcover (1939). Image sourced from Wikipedia

As expected, the narration by Scott Brick was excellent. Chapter intermissions were highlighted by the use of film noir-like jazz music to heighten the atmosphere.

Trivia and Links
The Big Sleep has been adapted for film three times. First as The Big Sleep (1946) dir. Howard Hawks, with Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as Vivian Rutledge Sternwood. The trailer for the film can be seen on YouTube here.

The second film adaptation was as a TV play The Big Sleep (1950) dir. Norman Felton, with Zachary Scott in the role of Philip Marlowe. This was part of the anthology series Robert Montgomery Presents (1950-57). I could not find an online trailer for this version.

The third film adaptation was as The Big Sleep (1978) dir. Michael Winner, with Robert Mitchum in the role of Philip Marlowe. The setting of the adaptation relocates it from 1930s Los Angeles to 1970's London UK and many of the character names are changed. The trailer can be seen on YouTube here.

The Big Sleep is in the public domain in Canada and can be read online at Gutenberg Canada here. ( )

Un clasico del genero detectivesco.
Trama compleja, detective inteligente, duro bebedor de whisky y fumador. Que no le importa meterle dos bofetadas a una chica o disparar a traicion si hace falta.

Muy lejos de las sensibilidades modernas, pero ya se sabe como eran aquellos años. ( )