THE BIG SLEEP

Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler
Screenplay by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman
Directed by Howard Hawks

Humphrey Bogart
Lauren Bacall
John Ridgely
Martha Vickers

Premiere date: August 23, 1946

Private detective Philip Marlowe is summoned to the home of the fabulously wealthy General Sternwood. Marlowe is hired to deal with a blackmailer shaking down the General's sensuous, thumb-sucking daughter Carmen. This earns Marlowe the suspicion of Carmen's sloe-eyed, seemingly straight-laced older sister Vivian, who is fiercely protective of her somewhat addled sibling. As he pursues the case at hand, Marlowe gets mixed up in the murder of Arthur Geiger, a dealer in pornography. He also runs afoul of gambling-house proprietor Eddie Mars, who seems to have some sort of hold over the enigmatic Vivian.

Bogie's Bungle

Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and Marilyn Monroe. Bogie seems to have momentarily forgotten which breasts he's married to.