This week our film is The Big Sleep (Hawks, 1946) starring the detective Philip Marlowe. Marlowe is the
detective in eight of crime novelist Raymond Chandler’s novels. The character is in many film versions of
these books, and many actors such as Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery, George Montgomery, James
Garner, Elliot Gould, Robert Mitchum and James Cann have portrayed Marlowe since Chandler created the
fictional character.
After reading Chapter 10, do you feel film noir is a genre on its own or a style/mood? We watched Vertigo
in Week 2, so use both movies as support for your position on film noir. Use at least one quotation from the
textbook and one example each from the two movies. Then in the second paragraph, pick one scene
fromThe Big Sleep and explain in detail what three characteristics of film noir that you notice are shown.
End your post with a third paragraph by choosing one of the supporting characters: Eddie Mars (John
Ridgely), Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers), General Sternwood (Charles Waldron), Agnes Louzier
(Sonia Darrin), Acme Bookshop Girl (Dorothy Malone), Joe Brody (Louis Jean Heydt), Mona Mars (Peggy
Knudsen), Lash Canino (Bob Steele) or a minor character that caught your attention. How does the
director, Howard Hawks, depict characterization of this character through only film technique (lighting,
sound, music, camera angle, staging, props, costuming)? Detail the characterization.