This is a very messy scripted, messy directed so-called "Thriller" but got no thrill at all. When you watched it, you just saw R.M. played the Philip Marlowe character as a private detective did his P.I. business on British soil, fully dressed, just not in tuxedo. He just walked around until later involved in a gun fight. The two daughters of a retired American general were so ridiculously to watch, both duly a poor miscast job. There were so many names and characters involved in this messy film, just like the novel itself. R. Chandler's P.I. Philip Marlowe series although a classic, but it just feel dated and outdated by today's view point standard. Those murder cases were just like what those housewives turned mystery writers, especially the British and American female murder case mystery writers, who dreamed up those laughable murder cases one by one, their police inspectors also looked just laughable but still unbiasedly adapted and made into PBS "Masterpiece" dramas to entertain mucho TV viewers. I've tried to read those so many times but never could have finished one. These are just kitchen dining table writers to me. Chandler might be had so many female apprentices, I guess.

A costly project with lots of star power, this re-make of The Big Sleep was doomed to failure from the start. Critics were honor-bound to compare any new version unfavorably with the original, but the re-make's demise became irremediably inevitable when Michael Winner decided to re-locate the story from 1940s Los Angeles to 1970s London! Nonetheless, this version is not only an interesting movie in its own right, but actually seems far more faithful to both the plot and mood of the Chandler novel.Admittedly, Mitchum is no Bogart, but is more the imperturbable, world-weary, snappy Marlowe that readers love, while Sarah Miles, Candy Clark and James Stewart are so close to the characters in the book as to make comparisons with Bacall and company irrelevant. Richard Boone is far more frightening as Canino, while Oliver Reed creams John Ridgely as Eddie Mars. John Mills has a tiny role as the equivalent of the Regis Toomey character, and Richard Todd an even smaller part as another Scotland Yard man. This movie also features striking photography and compelling sets, and it is available on an excellent 10/10 Geneon DVD.

While I haven't read the novel upon which 'The Big Sleep' is based, I have seen the Bogart version. I really love the original. Bogie-Bacall - what's not to love? However, that version does suffer from Hays Code puritanism that robbed the edge from much of human desires and sexual foibles that obviously suppressed some of the underlying desires and sexual motives.That's where the 1978 version excels - and fails. Let's start with the fails. In the original, the scenes in the bookshops near the beginning rule with Bogie's use of humour and the electric suggested tryst with Dorothy Malone's character. Sometimes the suggestion can be erotic enough. Perhaps that's why this version skips the fun and the implied sex for another more mundane approach.The other fail is the atmosphere. This version lacks any. The original's shadows and textures evoked each scene and created moods. This version lacks any specific mood to instead tell a story in almost a heightened reality. The direction does the same, relying on straight-ahead narrative more like a TV movie than a theatrical film.There's so much more here that succeeds. Despite his age, Mitchum is a fine Marlow, more cynical and world-weary than Bogart's version. The script is sharp, full of humour and wry observations. The biggest improvement is the depiction of sex. Freed of the tyranny of the forties' censorship, scenes like Carmen naked and stoned are much more realistic and make a more satisfying treatment, even if the innuendo is not as predominant.OK, it's not the classic it could've been. It's still a decent flick to rent or watch on cable. Marlowe is solid, Candy Clark is wonderfully loony, Joan Collins is pure kitsch, Richard Boone plays the essence of evil. It's good to see James Stewart, even if his gentle disposition doesn't quite match the demeanour of a General. The supporting cast are almost uniformly intriguing and fun to watch. And what a cast!The Big Sleep may be no masterpiece but it is great fun. Relax your expectations and enjoy it for what is - fine entertainment.

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.