The Big Sleep

The residue of Chandler in Winner's remake of The Big Sleep might just con audiences unfamiliar with the novels and who haven't seen the 1946 Hawks/Bogart version. Otherwise, it's on very shaky ground indeed. Spuriously relocated in London (Winner's facility with luxurious location set pieces is anything but masterful), and with Marlowe dressed by Savile Row (Mitchum seems to sleepwalk through the part), the film sorely lacks any of the seediness and menace which made the 1973 remake of Farewell My Lovely at least watchable. Winner's insistence as a director on making everything as explicit as possible is often stultifying beyond belief.