The Big Sleep

1978
R
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

5.7K

YOUR RATING

Robert Mitchum and Candy Clark in The Big Sleep (1978)

Play trailer2:15

1 Video

25 Photos

Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

A grizzled American private detective in England investigates a complicated case of blackmail-turned-murder involving a rich but honest elderly general, his two loose socialite daughters, a ... Read allA grizzled American private detective in England investigates a complicated case of blackmail-turned-murder involving a rich but honest elderly general, his two loose socialite daughters, a pornographer, and a gangster.A grizzled American private detective in England investigates a complicated case of blackmail-turned-murder involving a rich but honest elderly general, his two loose socialite daughters, a pornographer, and a gangster.

Director
- Michael Winner
Writers
- Michael Winner
- Raymond Chandler
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.8/10

5.7K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Michael Winner
Writers
- Michael Winner
- Raymond Chandler
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 2:15

The Big Sleep

Photos25

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
James Stewart had difficulty saying his lines on time due to hearing and possibly memory problems. Some of the cast were shocked by his aged appearance. Robert Mitchum recalled, "The picture was all about corpses, but Jimmy looked deader than any of them." Stewart actually outlived Mitchum by one day, nearly 20 years later.

Goofs
When Marlowe takes the gun from Camilla after she unloads it on him with multiple blank rounds, he grabs the barrel with his bare hands. That should have proved to be very painful as the barrel would be extremely hot.

EDIT: This is incorrect. Blank cartridges in a small calibre gun will not heat the barrel to any great extent. A gun barrel gets hot mainly due to the friction of the bullet going through the barrel, not from the powder in the cartridge.

Quotes
Charlotte Sternwood: [when Marlowe declines to blackmail her] Wha-? You don't want money?
Philip Marlowe: Oh sure. All I itch for is money. I'm so greedy that for fifty pounds a day plus expenses on the day I work, I risk my future, the hatred of the cops, of Eddie Mars and his pals, I dodge bullets and put up with slaps and say "Thank you very much. If you have any further trouble please call me: I'll just put my card here on the table." I do all that for a few pounds. And maybe just a little bit to protect what little pride a sick and broken old man has in his family, so that he can believe his blood is not poisoned. That his little girls - though they may be a trifle wild - are not perverts and killers.

Connections
Featured in James Stewart, Robert Mitchum: The Two Faces of America (2017)

Soundtracks
Won't Somebody Dance With Me
Music and Lyrics by Lynsey de Paul
Sung by Diana Quick (uncredited)

User reviews66

Review

Featured review

Big Mistake, The (1978)

Chandler's novel is pushed ahead by about 40 years. His Philip Marlowe is aged about 30 years. The location is changed by the combined breadth of the United States and the Atlantic Ocean. It should come as no surprise that this doesn't work at all. The scandal from which Marlowe shields the old man was so much more significant in the period in which the book was set. (Who, for example, really would be heart-broken or even especially shocked to learn in 1978 that his daughter had been photographed in the nude? Granted, that the secrets get darker, but the point is that so much is diluted.) Mitchum is a very, very fine actor, and when he was, say, 30 to 40 years old he would have been a good choice to play Marlowe; but an important aspect of Marlowe is exactly that he is so weary of spirit while still a relatively young man; we expect the old to feel old. And...a film noir in the English country-side? I don't think so!