The Big Sleep (1978 version) (1 Viewer)

Who here remembers this British adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel with Jimmy Stewart, Joan Collins, and Sarah Miles in the principal cast? It was produced by ITC, and was a United Artists release here in the states.

I heard it was much closer to the original novel, than the 1946 film version was.

It was reset in the modern period and relocated to London, neither of which was in the original book. The film had the luxury of being able to be more upfront about sexuality and violence than the Bogart version, and I do enjoy watching it, but I don't even think of it in terms of the book. It's its own entity.

Shout! Factory just released this on DVD last week....https://www.shoutfactory.com/film/film-crime/the-big-sleep

I just got mine from Shout! a week or so ago and watched it for the first time. I thought it was really good.

Mitchum makes a good Philip Marlowe.

Yes, Mitchum was excellent.
I might just have to get this one!

Mitchum is good casting but was much better in the role in Dick Richards' 1975 version of Farewell My Lovely. Michael Winner's film is very faithful to the book, much more so that Hawks ever was. On the whole though he doesn't really succeed in making it work on his own terms, and not just for being relocated to London in the 1970s instead of pre-war Los Angeles. Richard Boone, Joan Collins and Candy Clark are great, but Sarah Miles and Mitchum, despite being so good in Ryan's Daughter, have very little chemistry here, which hurts the film a lot - and fatally, as with most of Winner's post-1960s films, there is very little in the way of atmosphere, his directing and editing style (he cut most of his own films as 'Arnold Crust') being described as 'functional at best (and at worst strictly 'zoom and thump' as one critic memorably put it). It's definitely worth though, especially because it reinstates Chandler's original, and better, ending. I have the UK release which has a very scurrilous audio commentary by Winner.

The US disc retains the commentary, according to the box.

BIANCO2NERO said:

Sarah Miles and Mitchum, despite being so good in Ryan's Daughter, have very little chemistry here

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I have always found Sarah Miles to be the fatal weak link in this. She can act, but I'm not sure why she made some of the odd choices she made in this (the oversexed tongue-out pose she uses frequently to show her rapacious promiscuity comes to mind) and she comes across as a cold blank in what should be a pivotal role.

Although the feel is far different than it would have been had they stuck with the pre-war LA setting of the book (and not tried to film it on the cheap), I kind of always felt it worked surprisingly well against its decadent London 1970's setting

I first saw this on one of its earliest network showings (early to mid 80's maybe?) and I enjoyed the hell out of it although I, too much much prefer FAREWELL MY LOVELY (which I would do anything short of murder to good a good blu-ray of!) and I haven't seen this in awhile so I may pop for this one if the price is right.

Thanks!

Wondering aloud if Farewell, My Lovely is part of the ITC package licenced by Shout! Factory. Both titles were ITC productions, but Farewell was distributed by Avco/Embassy.

THE BIG SLEEP (78) is available on Amazon for $9.98. The price won't get any more right than that.

oh wait...I didn't read carefully enough, this is DVD only? I'll probably pass then as I'm trying not to add any more DVD's unless it's something absolutely vital.

I'd say this is unlikely to make it to Blu but it would be great twinned with FML, which deserves a Blu release or if nothing else a better DVD.