So, I had so much fun comparing the book and movie for \u201cThe Thin Man\u201d that I to read Chandler\u2019s \u201cThe Big Sleep\u201d so that I could compare it to its movie too.\u00a0 And once again I\u2019m reading it from the Library of America edition that I already have.\u00a0 The book came out in 1939 and the movie in 1946.\u00a0 The pre-war and post war difference probably is significant.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll just leave that alone.<\/p>\n
And let me state for the record that this review is full of spoilers.<\/strong><\/p>\n First off, I\u2019ll state for the record that although I\u2019ve always enjoyed the movie immensely, I found the book much more interesting and satisfying as a story.\u00a0 The biggest difference between the book and movie is the characterization of the Sternwood daughters Vivian and Carmen.\u00a0 In the movie the role of Vivian is a mostly sympathetic character who becomes the love interest for the Marlowe character.\u00a0 But in the book, she is almost as reckless as her unbalanced sister Carmen.\u00a0 And whereas in the movie Carmen is an exhibitionistic spoiled woman-child in the book she is truly psychotic.<\/p>\n And allowing the Sternwood daughters to be pathological individuals they are, simplifies the details of the story that in the movie have to be sanitized in order to fit the Hays Code.\u00a0 So, we can be told that Geiger\u2019s \u201cbook store\u201d lent out pornography to its customers and Carmen was being photographed naked by Geiger at the time when the Sternwood chauffer came in and killed Geiger and stole the exposed film of Carmen.\u00a0 And so on with other parts of the story that don\u2019t make sense in the movie because the seediness of the plot elements prevented their being openly stated instead of subtly implied.\u00a0 So, we don\u2019t have an explicit statement that Eddie Mars is not only aware of Geiger\u2019s racket but also uses it to blackmail customers.<\/p>\n But the biggest difference between the two versions of the story is the disappearance of Rusty Regan (called Sean Regan in the film).\u00a0 At the end of the movie Eddie Mars claims he saw Carmen kill Regan.\u00a0 But because Mars didn\u2019t even know what Carmen looked like Marlowe seems to reject this version of the facts.\u00a0 This leads the audience to believe that Mars had Regan killed by Canino out of jealousy over Mars\u2019 wife\u2019s relationship with Regan.\u00a0 But in the movie Marlowe suspects Carmen of the murder and he tests the theory.\u00a0 After he had rejected Carmen\u2019s sexual advances one night, the next day he tests her sanity.\u00a0 He returns her pistol and tells her it\u2019s loaded and she asks for him to teach her how to shoot.\u00a0 After leading Marlowe to a secluded location, she uses the opportunity and angrily fires all six shots at him.\u00a0 Of course, he had the gun loaded with blanks and after disarming her she goes into an epileptic fit.\u00a0 And after bringing Carmen back to the house to receive medical attention Marlowe tells Vivian that he knows that Carmen must have murdered her husband after a similar refusal by Regan to sleep with her.\u00a0 And Vivian admits to the truth of the killing.<\/p>\n I find this a much more satisfactory ending.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been shown the Sternwoods as a very sinister and dysfunctional clan and the idea that Vivian is somehow a sympathetic or admirable individual despite all the evidence to the contrary just rings false.\u00a0 Chandler\u2019s story is a grim tale that lacks the happy ending of the Hollywood movie that pairs Bogart and Bacall as a romantic couple.\u00a0 But it\u2019s a better ending and in my opinion much more satisfying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, I had so much fun comparing the book and movie for \u201cThe Thin Man\u201d that I to read Chandler\u2019s \u201cThe Big Sleep\u201d so that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,2510,239,238,237],"tags":[1562,1567,2623,2624],"class_list":["post-36687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-literature","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-humphrey-bogart","tag-lauren-bacall","tag-raymond-chandler","tag-the-big-sleep"],"yoast_head":"\n