History Film / TheBigSleep

The story got another screen adaptation in 1978, written and directed by Creator/MichaelWinner and starring Creator/RobertMitchum, Creator/SarahMiles, Creator/RichardBoone, Candy Clark, Creator/JoanCollins, and Creator/JamesStewart. This version stayed much closer to the novel but was less critically well-received.

* ForeignRemake: The 1978 film is set in Britain with an American Phillip Marlowe having moved to the country as well as General Sternwood having done the same.

* TruerToTheText: Despite the SettingUpdate, the movie eschews closer to the book, including ditching the romances introduced as well as being HotterAndSexier.

A remake, written and directed by Creator/MichaelWinner and starring Creator/RobertMitchum, was made in 1978. It stayed much closer to the novel but less critically well-received.

A remake, directed by Creator/MichaelWinner and starring Creator/RobertMitchum, was made in 1978. It was much closer to the novel but less critically well-received.

** The book has Phillip Marlowe interrupting a porn shoot and finding a naked girl. Obviously this wouldn't fly on film in the 1940s, so the movie gets as daring as it could by putting her in a nightgown.

** In the book, Carmen notes how tall Marlowe is and follows up by asking if he's some kind of prize fighter. In the film, she notes how ''short'' he is but still asks if he's a prize fighter, so it comes out of nowhere.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Eddie Mars is revealed to have been responsible for Rusty Regan's murder and planning on murdering Phillip Marlowe. Though, see AmbiguousSituation.

* AllThereInTheManual: The movie censors out some of the book's details. Reading the book sheds some light on a few of the little mysteries in the film, such as the code book Marlowe finds (it's Geiger's ledger of clients), the exact nature of the blackmail photos (Carmen wasn't wearing her robe when they were taken) and all that weird business in the back of Geiger's [[UnusualEuphemism rare book shop]] (the back room is selling pornography, which is one of the reasons Eddie Mars cleans it out the next morning).

** A good argument by many film goers is that Phillip Marlowe actually gets Eddie Mars killed so Carmen can get off the hook for Regan's murder along with Mrs. Rutledge.
%%zce* ArchEnemy: Eddie Mars to Phillip Marlowe.

* CharacterTics: Philip Marlowe rubs his earlobe when his concentrating. Carmen also bites her thumb, which irritates Marlowe.

** Marlowe drives a 1938 Plymouth Deluxe - the same car Humphrey Bogart drove in ''Film/HighSierra''.
** Marlowe tells Carmen the next time he'll come with a tennis racket. This a reference to the legend that a young struggling Humphrey Bogart said on stage "tennis anyone?"

''The Big Sleep'' is a 1946 American FilmNoir directed by Creator/HowardHawks, adapted from the 1939 Creator/RaymondChandler [[Literature/TheBigSleep novel of the same name]] by screenwriters Creator/WilliamFaulkner, Creator/LeighBrackett, and Jules Furthman. Both the original novel and the movie are considered classics, and the latter is a quintessential example of the FilmNoir genre.