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Candy Clark, Colin Blakely, James Stewart

Robert Mitchum is back as the legendary private investigator, Philip Marlowe. This adaptation of Raymond Chandler's classic hard-boiled detective mystery features an all-star cast, including: Richard ...( read more  read more... )Boone, Joan Collins, Sir John Mills, James Stewart, and Oliver Reed. Marlowe is hired by a retired general (James Stewart) to find out who has been blackmailing the old man's wild daughters (Sarah Miles and Candy Clark). At the same time he has to try to locate the missing husband of one of the daughters. Marlowe's search leads through a dangerous thicket of murder and suicide in the seedy criminal underworld straight to the head quarters of the notorious nightclub owner and gangland boss, Eddie Mars (Oliver Reed). Expert story teller Raymond Chandler spins a masterful web of deceit, creating an intricate, spellbinding mystery full of bare-knuckle action and heart-pounding suspense.

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30% liked it

1,256 ratings

R, 102 min.

Directed by: Michael Winner

Release Date: January 1, 1978

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DVD Release Date: August 22, 2000

Stats: 52 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (52)

  • kenstachnik
    September 2, 2008
    kenstachnik
    Thoroughly underwhelming
  • nuheart
    December 26, 2006
    nuheart
    Is it wrong to bring Marlowe into the present? No. But it IS wrong to move him to London. Mitchum makes a great Marlowe, but this movie just doesn't cut it. Stick with Farewell, My Lovely for your Mitchum-as-Marlowe fix.
  • rickrudge
    August 11, 2009
    rickrudge
    The Big Sleep (1978)

    This is one of those movies that you wonder why the studio bothered to remake this. On paper, it looks like a great idea with a marvelous cast and it follow the Raymond Chandler story a little closer with an R rating (although Chandler wrote about LA and th...( read more)is is in Britain). The British love a good mystery, and I can appreciate the homage.

    Robert Mitchum plays Philip Marlowe. Although he's world-werey, he's not quite up to speed of a Philip Marlowe at his age. Plus the speed of the movie isn't as fast-paced as the 1946 version. I found that I was mouthing the script as I watched this and even I was quicker at getting it out than the actors.

    Richard Boone, as Lash Canino, was nowhere near as scary as Bob Steele was in the original. Boone, who has played his fair share of scary characters, perhaps at his age he was beginning to look more grandfatherly.
  • dfreebyrd59
    March 30, 2009
    dfreebyrd59
    Robert Mitchum is awesome and still can play an investigator to the hill for his age.
  • Ghw12158
    September 7, 2008
    Ghw12158
    the first one is way better
  • fuzzyslowmo
    February 5, 2008
    fuzzyslowmo
    Good murder mystery with rich plot
  • silentfilmfanatic
    January 13, 2008
    silentfilmfanatic
    horrible great movie should not be touched this one looks bad right from the start.
  • mentalfig
    August 22, 2007
    mentalfig
    why remake this great film?
  • daremba
    June 23, 2007
    daremba
    I like Bob Mitchum as Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. Very rarely do remakes match the original but this came very close.
  • thelovableone7
    January 4, 2007
    thelovableone7
    Good, but nowhere near as captivating as the original

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The Big Sleep Trivia

  • Vivian: So you do get up, I was beginning to think you worked in bed like Marcel Proust. Marlowe: Who's he? Vivian: You wouldn't know him, a French writer. Marlowe: Come into my boudoir what movie??  Answer »
  • Which Bogey classic is this? Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.   Answer »
  • Who played gumshoe Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1946)?  Answer »
  • Which major American writer did script work on "The Big Sleep," an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel?  Answer »
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