One Paragraph Movie Review: The Big Sleep

Jo Thornely
1 min readAug 20, 2019

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Forty-second film: Bogart and Bacall classic The Big Sleep from 1946. So I love the IDEA of complicated noir detective plots with equal parts tiny glasses of whisky and mobsters getting plugged, but this film is almost TOO thinky. There are so, so many names to remember, twists to keep abreast of and gut-punches to wince from, and whilst the dialogue — some original Raymond Chandler — pings like popcorn, its snap crackle pace meant that I gave up on plot after a while and just focused on the frocks. I’m yet to believe that there’s a single dress made in the 1940s that isn’t worth killing for. Happily most reviews of The Big Sleep are of the ‘phew, pretty complicated, eh?’ variety, so I don’t have to feel stupid. Today. Also, has anyone ever mentioned that Lauren Bacall is quite good-looking? Because Lauren Bacall is quite good-looking. Two and a half protracted sexy horse metaphors out of five.

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