Line #31 YMMV/TheBigSleep


1	!!The 1946 Film
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3	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Due to the alternations to the novel's plot, there's a very good argument that Phillip Marlowe's explanation at the end that Eddie Mars killed Regan instead of Carmen is actually him doing a FrameUp of the gangster to get the Sternwoods off the hook. Which would make him a far more morally ambiguous character.
4	* AwardSnub: It received zero UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations.
5	* CantUnHearIt: It's pretty hard to read the book and not imagine Creator/HumphreyBogart's voice narrating.
6	* FranchiseOriginalSin: Many criticisms hurled at the GenreThrowback to FilmNoir ''Film/TheBlackDahlia'' can actually be found in this - an overly convoluted story and a lot of information that's hard to hold onto. The difference is of course that ''The Big Sleep'' still has a lot of merit with regards to how well it pulls that off, whereas ''The Black Dahlia'' was a three-hour movie cut down into a confusing two-hour length.
7	* {{Narm}}: The AdaptationalModesty to Carmen when Marlowe interrupts her photoshoot. It doesn't quite have the same effect when she's wearing such a modest nightgown.
8	* OneSceneWonder:
9	** The General appears in only one scene at the beginning of the film despite being an important background character for most of it.
10	** Dorothy Malone as the bookstore clerk. She gets far more love on Website/ThisVeryWiki than her small screen time would indicate.
11	%%* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: It was this by the time it was released. It was shot during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, but delayed so that Warner Bros. could release a lot of war films hurriedly. Pictures of UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt are on display in various places, there's a female taxi driver (when most of the men were fighting in the war) and a lot of period dialogue. There's lots of references to wartime rationing too - the dead bodies are called "red points", which is what meat was referred to during rationing. Marlowe's car also has a B gasoline rationing sticker on the window, indicating he was essential to the war effort and would be allowed eight hours of gasoline a week. {{Lacks detail on what made this unintentional, especially considering that a wartime propaganda film is pretty highly topical}}.
12	* ValuesDissonance:
13	** Marlowe requests that the bookshop girl take her glasses off while they share a drink. This would be considered quite rude today.
14	** Marlowe also wears sunglasses to pass himself off as a pretentious literature professor to Agnes - effectively invoking NerdGlasses. Sunglasses had only just become available to the public in 1937 and hadn't caught on as a cool fashion accessory yet.
15	* ValuesResonance: Marlowe's efforts to stop the lewd photos of Carmen being made public is still very relevant today, given the scandals involving female celebrities having their private photos stolen by hackers.
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17	!! 1978 Movie
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19	* OneSceneWonder: Jimmy Stewart as General Sternwood does a great performance.
20	* SoOkayItsAverage: Generally, it's a competent adaptation of the novel but considered nothing compared to its previous version.
21	* QuestionableCasting:
22	** Robert Mitchum was sixty years old at the time of the movie and looks every year.
23	** Joan Collins as the minor supporting character Agnes is distractingly more glamorous than the film's lead women.
24	* ToughActToFollow: The 1946 version is considered one of the greatest films of all time. This is not.
25	* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Robert Mitchum and Joan Collins are the only ones attempting to act in the film.
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27	!!The Novel
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29	* ValuesDissonance:
30	** Marlowe and other characters are open with their disgust for homosexuals. They freely use homophobic slurs like "queen" and make jokes at their expense. After getting decked by a gay man, Marlowe asserts that it didn't hurt much because gay men "have no iron in their bones."
31	** Marlowe's alcoholism, to an extent. There are several times in the novel where he [[DrunkDriver takes a swig either while driving or about to start driving]], and neither he nor anyone else thinks anything of it.
32	* ValuesResonance: Some readers have objected to Carmen being "only" sent to a mental hospital for murder but it's very clear to modern day readers that she's seriously mentally ill and not responsible for her actions.
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Context YMMV / TheBigSleep