Film Noir, The Detective Film, and "The Big Sleep"

Traditionally, there are two ways to define noir. Those who define it as a genre typically cite THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) as the first film made in the noir style, and feel that as a genre, it is ever changing and expanding. Thus, the genre can include not only such later works from such Modernist filmmakers as Jean-Luc Godard (A BOUT DE SOUFFLE [1960]) and Roman Polanski (CHINATOWN [1974]), and Postmodernist films such as L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (1997), but also retroactively include earlier films as Fritz Lang's M (1931) and FURY (1936) as noir as well. The genre theorists would also approach 1940s detective and police film as a part of noir. Examples from this subset would include Jules Dassin's THE NAKED CITY (1948), John Huston's THE MALTESE FALCON (1941), and of course, Howard Hawks' THE BIG SLEEP (1946).

I do not approach film noir from this angle for a number of reasons. I feel that it ignores certain thematic elements, especially in regard to the qualities of the protagonist, which are unique to noir. I, instead, view film noir from the stylistic (or traditionalist) standpoint. This is the approach that was put forth in the Cahiers du Cinema article that first used the term film noir to refer to a series of crime dramas coming out of Hollywood in the years following World War II. Traditionally, this approach views Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) as the “first” film noir picture, and cites 1958 as the last year for film noir (with the release of Orson Welles’ TOUCH OF EVIL being the last film noir production).

To be fair, the film noir style as defined by traditionalists does share certain similarities with the 1940s detective and mystery film. Certainly the visual style is similar. In fact, I would argue that by the time THE BIG SLEEP was produced in 1946, the detective film and film noir styles and already become so inextricably linked that the two are virtually indistinguishable. It is only when we look under the surface that the differences become apparent.

The element of noir that is most significantly unique is the protagonist. The noir protagonist is, by nature, weak. Fred MacMurray in DOUBLE INDEMNITY, Edward G. Robinson in SCARLET STREET, Tom Neal in DETOUR and others are all essentially losers, so weak they cannot even do the right thing when they know they are being led down a path of destruction. Bogart’s Marlowe in THE BIG SLEEP is too strong a character to be a true noir protagonist. Aside from being a successful professional (a distinctly Hawksian theme), he is seen taking control of his situations even as he gets further and further involved in the bizarre maze of criminals and gangsters. He appears as the same sort of maverick lawman as his Sam Spade character in THE MALTESE FALCON. We see him removing evidence from the crime scene, covering up for Carmen Sternwood after he discovers her with a smoking gun next to a corpse, and using any means necessary to get his suspects to talk. Finally, he becomes involved in an ultimately successful coupling with Vivian Sternwood (Lauren Bacall). (Of course, it helps in these cases to have an understanding of the realities of film production, as the romantic angle between Bogart and Bacall was built up after the success of their teaming in Hawks’ TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, which was released in the interim between the shooting and post-production of THE BIG SLEEP.) Despite Vivian’s secrecy and her ambiguous relationship with Marlowe throughout much of the film, she is ultimately on his “side”, and helps him in the end rather than dragging his career and life into turmoil. Compare this with Joan Bennett’s character in SCARLET STREET, who uses and abuses Chris Cross (Robinson) until he is a broken and dejected individual, then laughs in his face when he suggests that he is in love with her. Or consider Phyllis Dietrichson’s relationship with Walter Neff in DOUBLE INDEMNITY; everything is fine until trouble rears its head. And most significantly, take Vera’s relationship with Al Roberts in DETOUR, in which she ruins his chances of a healthy relationship with his girlfriend and turns him, inadvertently, into a murderer to satisfy her own greed. There is no such direct relationship with the femme fatale in THE BIG SLEEP.

From a story standpoint, THE BIG SLEEP is a mystery. By definition of the traditionalist/stylistic approach, noir does not contain a mystery. Even confirmed mystery authors, Raymond Chandler among them, shed the mystery angle when he co-wrote the screenplay for DOUBLE INDEMNITY with Billy Wilder. James M. Cain claimed that the new style of crime drama (he was describing noir before the term had been coined) appearing in the early 1940s held no elements of mystery. The viewer knows upfront “whodunit”. They are, in fact, involved in the planning stages of the crime, such as the intricate details of DOUBLE INDEMNITY, or the more haphazard, frantic scheming of DETOUR. THE BIG SLEEP is somewhat unique among mystery stories (and films) in that it does not present a clear series of “clues” that enable the viewer to work alongside the detective protagonist in solving the crime. This is precisely the element that detracts from THE NAKED CITY’s status as a film noir as well. That film is more a police procedural in the style of DRAGNET rather than the “criminal’s point of view” found in noir. The mystery of THE BIG SLEEP lies in the intricacy of the details and clues as they unfold.

It is interesting, though, to compare THE BIG SLEEP with another Raymond Chandler/Philip Marlowe adaptation of 1946-Dick Powell’s film THE LADY IN THE LAKE. This film, which is a more clear mystery, uniquely tells the entire film from the point of view of Marlowe. Thus, actors in the frame ostensibly looking toward “Marlowe” are actually looking in to the camera. We walk in and out of rooms with Marlowe, and see every single detail from his point of view. This technique is ultimately unsuccessful because, paradoxically, it fails to allow us to identify with the protagonist whom we never “see”. Bogart’s screen presence, on the other hand, allows us to identify with him and holds the interest of the viewer through even the most dense and obtuse sections of the story.

I would question whether or not Howard Hawks’ focus on professionalism prevented him from directing a true “film noir”. I certainly do not mean to suggest that Hawks wasn’t craftsman enough to tackle the style, but would question whether or not the inherent weakness of character found in film noir was simply in such direct opposition to the grain of Hawks’ cinematic philosophy that he was unable to immerse himself completely in the noir style. Indeed, it is one type of film he never made (at least from a stylistic/traditionalist standpoint, of course), despite his having tackled such a wide variety of styles, genre and subject matter. Hawks’ personal interest with professionalism as a trait and lifestyle was the hallmark of the “auteur” principle as initially set forth by Francois Truffaut. It is certainly a dominant character trait in Hawks’ films (and I want to be perfectly clear, I am most certainly not endorsing the auteur theory as an approach to viewing or analyzing films. It is the worst kind of fanboy adulation that resulted in Andrew Sarris championing a mediocre film by a great director, such as Hawks’ HATARI!, while dismissing a truly great film like CASABLANCA as “a happy accident”, simply because it wasn’t directed by a filmmaker in his personal pantheon.)

Humphrey Bogart had the good fortune to appear in three of the greatest American films during the 1940s. THE BIG SLEEP is a good film, though not, I would argue, a great one. In purely cinematic terms, it lacks the kind of dramatic thrust and style that marks THE MALTEST FALCON. The relationship between the male and female leads lacks the kind of profound, almost tragic greatness that makes CASABLANCA the greatest romance of all time. And finally, it lacks the dynamic between the characters and the psychological depth of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE. When compared with these three other films, the flaws that keep THE BIG SLEEP from achieving its full greatness become all the more apparent.

Challenging the status of THE BIG SLEEP and other 1940s detective pictures as film noir is perhaps an overdue reevaluation, not even just of noir specifically, but of so-called Hollywood genre pictures in general. As there is more and more study of film noir, both as a genre and as a style, there is a tendency to blanket a large number of films under the film noir heading without considering the realities of the production, and the cultural state in which these works were produced. If film historians, and academia in particular, want to categorize works based on the criteria as set forth in any variety of approaches, there needs to be a thorough understanding of both industrial and cultural realities to prevent false conclusions from being reached. Unfortunately, as film studies become more and more geared toward recent films, and recent American films in particular, this is less likely to happen, as the line between fact and opinion become increasingly blurred to the point where any sort of critical objectivity becomes impossible.