Focus Features

One of film noir’s most confusing hits was released in its final form on August 31, 1946. The Big Sleep, directed by Howard Hawks and adapted by William Faulkner from Raymond Chandler’s novel, starred Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall in a story about murder and blackmail among the rich and famous. The film was actually finished in 1945 but Warner Brothers decided to hold back on its release due to a backlog of films. While it sat on the shelf, To Have and Have Not came out, and Bacall, in her screen debut, became a star. The studio, fearing that the film would flop and weaken Bacall’s career, ordered reshoots, and what was a tentative romance between the characters now became a well-remembered chapter in their romantic screen pairings. Yet, despite the reshoots, the film remains as confusing as ever. In selecting it for his list of top movies, critic Roger Ebert wrote, “It is typical of this most puzzling of films that no one agrees even on why it is so puzzling. Yet that has never affected The Big Sleep's enduring popularity, because the movie is about the process of a criminal investigation, not its results.”

One of film noir’s most confusing hits was released in its final form on August 31, 1946. The Big Sleep, directed by Howard Hawks and adapted by William Faulkner from Raymond Chandler’s novel, starred Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall in a story about murder and blackmail among the rich and famous. The film was actually finished in 1945 but Warner Brothers decided to hold back on its release due to a backlog of films. While it sat on the shelf, To Have and Have Not came out, and Bacall, in her screen debut, became a star. The studio, fearing that the film would flop and weaken Bacall’s career, ordered reshoots, and what was a tentative romance between the characters now became a well-remembered chapter in their romantic screen pairings. Yet, despite the reshoots, the film remains as confusing as ever. In selecting it for his list of top movies, critic Roger Ebert wrote, “It is typical of this most puzzling of films that no one agrees even on why it is so puzzling. Yet that has never affected The Big Sleep's enduring popularity, because the movie is about the process of a criminal investigation, not its results.”