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The great spy novelist, John Le Carre, once told the press that he stopped writing about his spymaster, George Smiley, because Alec Guinness had stolen the character from him. Something similar happened to Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade. In the third film version of The Maltese Falcon, Humphrey Bogart pretty much closed the book on any future interpretations of the role. Of course, Hammett only wrote one novel about Spade, so it is hard to tell how another actor might have done in the role. Bogart came close to doing the same thing to Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe in The Big Sleep. Since we have several Marlowe novels and short stories, most of which have been filmed, we have a basis for comparison. The role was played at various times by Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery, Elliot Gould, Robert Mitchum, and Powers Booth. Both Powell and Mitchum give Bogey a run for the money, so it is fair to say that Bogart doesn't quite lay claim to the role. He comes close, though, in part because the movie surrounding his Marlowe is, perhaps, the best private eye movie ever made.

The elderly General Sternwood hires Marlowe to look into a blackmail scheme that has been leveled against his youngest daughter, the wild Carmen. Sternwood's older daughter thinks Marlowe has been hired to find Sean Regan, with whom she had been having an affair. In the course of investigating the blackmail scheme, Marlowe discovers that Carmen is in a lot deeper than just a little blackmail. Bodies begin piling up and Marlowe becomes VERY interested in the elusive Mr. Regan as the investigation plays out...

There is an apocryphal story about The Big Sleep, in which director Howard Hawks lost track of who had killed one of the minor characters. He called up screenwriter William Faulkner and Faulkner didn't know. Faulkner called Chandler and Chandler didn't know. From this story comes the accusation that the plot of The Big Sleep is incomprehensible. On a literal level, it probably is, but it doesn't really matter. In The Simple Art of Murder, Chandler described a good plot as a plot that had good scenes. In this respect, The Big Sleep has one of the best plots in movie history, because its individual scenes are dazzling. Consider this interchange between Marlowe and Mrs. Rutlidge, the older Sternwood sister (Lauren Bacall):

Mrs. Rutlidge: I don't like your manners.
Marlowe: I don't much like them myself. I weep for them long winter evenings.

Or this exchange between Marlowe and the Sternwood's butler:

Butler: Are you trying tell me my duties, sir?
Marlowe: No. Just having fun guessing what they are. You were wrong about Mrs. Rutlidge. She didn't want to see me after all.
Butler: I make many mistakes, sir.

Or between Marlowe and General Sternwood:

Gen. Sternwood: You met my younger daughter?
Marlowe: Yeah. She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.

And that's just in the first twenty minutes! The ENTIRE MOVIE has dialogue like that. The Big Sleep has the most quotable screenplay this side of Casablanca. Written by Faulkner with Leigh Brackett, it's possibly the best screenplay in history (although, it should be noted that many of the best lines are taken directly from the book). What Howard Hawks does with the script is phenomenal. It has a lot in common with Hawks's screwball comedies. By applying screwball patter to the gangster movies that Hawks was ALSO known for, Hawks created something entirely new. Hard-boiled had found its voice true voice.