THE BIG SLEEP (1946). Just finished reading the Raymond Chandler source novel and have always liked this one immensely. Such great dialogue and poweful turns by Bogart, Elisha Cook, Martha Vickers (great as the slutty hophead-also in CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN and also at one time Mrs Mickey Rooney
!) and Dorothy Malone. Even though the story is amazingly convuluted, the film doesn't suffer at all.
Remember Sculpt had mentioned an alternate version (1945), which is what I watched this time. Apparantly, Lauren Bacal's films after TO HAVE AND TO HAVE NOT were less than successful, so Warners figured more scenes with Bogart would help (By this time, thy were married) and the film was released almost a year later. While the 1945 version is more linear, the 1946 version has more scenes, some trimming of parts which really didn't help the story much and even a different actress playing Mrs Eddie Mars. As far as I'm concerned, the 46 version is the one to watch and definitely in my Bogie Top 10. ***1/2 (1945), ***** (46)