At first glance, it's easy to shriek in horror at the idea of Michael Winner trying his hand at a Philip Marlowe film. The whole concept becomes even harder to swallow when one realises that the action has been updated/relocated to 1970s England. But if you give this remake of the famous Raymond Chandler novel (most famously filmed in 1946 with Humphrey Bogart) a chance, it has its moments. Not many, admittedly, but enough to deserve a viewing at any rate. And any film with a cast that includes the likes of Robert Mitchum, James Stewart, Oliver Reed, Richard Boone, Sarah Miles, Edward Fox, Joan Collins, John Mills, Richard Todd and Harry Andrews carries the inevitable curiosity value associated with seeing so many stellar names in one flick.
American private eye living in England, Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum), is hired by a wheelchair bound old man, General Sternwood (James Stewart), to solve a blackmail problem. It seems that the general has a couple of wild and irresponsible daughters, the youngest of whom, Camilla (Candy Clark), has got herself into pornographic photography that could prove embarrassing to her father's reputation. Another thread is added to the mystery when the general mentions that the older daughter, Charlotte (Sarah Miles), was married to a guy named Rusty Regan who has recently disappeared without trace. Marlowe is officially being paid to sort out the blackmailing problem, but he senses that the general is much more interested ultimately in learning what happened to his much-appreciated son-in-law Rusty. The long and tortuous trail leads Marlowe to a photographer (John Justin) and a crooked book-keeper (Edward Fox), both of whom are murdered for their troubles, and finally to a casino owner called Eddie Mars (Oliver Reed) who seems to hold some sort of dirty secret linked to the Sternwood daughters. After much violence and death, Marlowe finally gets to the bottom of the mystery but fears the truth might be too harmful for the ailing general to take.
Mitchum is good as Marlowe, though perhaps not quite as good as he was a few years earlier in the excellent Farewell My Lovely. Some of the stars in the cast play it rather indifferently, while others are given preposterously little screen time to do anything with their parts. Reed does pretty well as Eddie Mars, Stewart has two well-acted scenes as the general, and that ubiquitous character-actor Harry Andrews adds another solid role to his oeuvre as the Sternwood family butler. Easily the worst of the key players is Sarah Miles, hopelessly wrong as the nymphomaniac Charlotte. The '70s English setting results in a lack of noirish atmosphere and is a further element of the film that doesn't really work. Winner directs adequately, but rather overdoes the flashy camera angles and zoom-ins. On a more positive note, Jerry Fielding's score is quite good and adds tension to scenes that might otherwise have been lacking. On the whole, The Big Sleep is a remake that never threatens to rival its predecessor, nor its source novel, but it does have occasional redeeming features for those in an undemanding mood.
American private eye living in England, Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum), is hired by a wheelchair bound old man, General Sternwood (James Stewart), to solve a blackmail problem. It seems that the general has a couple of wild and irresponsible daughters, the youngest of whom, Camilla (Candy Clark), has got herself into pornographic photography that could prove embarrassing to her father's reputation. Another thread is added to the mystery when the general mentions that the older daughter, Charlotte (Sarah Miles), was married to a guy named Rusty Regan who has recently disappeared without trace. Marlowe is officially being paid to sort out the blackmailing problem, but he senses that the general is much more interested ultimately in learning what happened to his much-appreciated son-in-law Rusty. The long and tortuous trail leads Marlowe to a photographer (John Justin) and a crooked book-keeper (Edward Fox), both of whom are murdered for their troubles, and finally to a casino owner called Eddie Mars (Oliver Reed) who seems to hold some sort of dirty secret linked to the Sternwood daughters. After much violence and death, Marlowe finally gets to the bottom of the mystery but fears the truth might be too harmful for the ailing general to take.
Mitchum is good as Marlowe, though perhaps not quite as good as he was a few years earlier in the excellent Farewell My Lovely. Some of the stars in the cast play it rather indifferently, while others are given preposterously little screen time to do anything with their parts. Reed does pretty well as Eddie Mars, Stewart has two well-acted scenes as the general, and that ubiquitous character-actor Harry Andrews adds another solid role to his oeuvre as the Sternwood family butler. Easily the worst of the key players is Sarah Miles, hopelessly wrong as the nymphomaniac Charlotte. The '70s English setting results in a lack of noirish atmosphere and is a further element of the film that doesn't really work. Winner directs adequately, but rather overdoes the flashy camera angles and zoom-ins. On a more positive note, Jerry Fielding's score is quite good and adds tension to scenes that might otherwise have been lacking. On the whole, The Big Sleep is a remake that never threatens to rival its predecessor, nor its source novel, but it does have occasional redeeming features for those in an undemanding mood.