The Big Sleep

Cocktails with Bogey & Bacall

I know I just wrote about a film starring Humphrey Bogart, but there are so many classic film noir movies, and several with Bogart. The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, was a movie that my husband and I knew about but have never seen. So, on a night when there was no hockey (Go Leafs!) to watch, we settled into our comfy place and watched this amazing film. The Big Sleep has lots of twists and turns, blackmail, emotional connections, and murder, that you can’t help but be totally engrossed from the very beginning.

The film begins at the ailing General Sternwood’s mansion where he sent for Private Detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) to deal with a blackmail scheme against his daughter Carmen, a wild and promiscuous teenager who sucks her thumb in a very evocative manner. The blackmail scheme by rare-book seller Arthur Geiger is the main reason for hiring Marlowe as discussed by the General in his over-heated conservatory.

Detective Marlowe is profusely sweating

The General and Carmen have recently experienced two episodes of blackmail, with one being paid by the General to a man named Joe Brody and handled by the General's protege, Sean Regan. Regan suddenly leaves without a word to anyone, rumored to have run off with casino owner, Eddie Mars's wife.

Marlowe while at the Sternwood mansion, also meets the General’s older daughter, Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall), who is just as wild but more cunning than her impetuous sister. Uncovering the true nature of the detective’s job seems to be Vivian's motive in "running into" Marlowe, as she strongly believes that he was hired to uncover the truth behind Regan's disappearance.

Marlowe finds himself entwined in a web of people related to the blackmail case he was hired to solve. He continues to investigate the events out of curiosity and to protect himself, in addition to the complication of falling for Vivian, which could be troublesome if she is perhaps involved in murder.

My husband and I have watched this classic film many times over and each time, it is still just as good if not better than the last. If you like a good mystery, suspense, a complicated and twisted plot, intrigue, intimate flirtation, and some great dialogue, then you will like this film.

For this movie my “Flicks & Forks” suggestion would be a classic cocktail made the way they did in the bars and clubs of that era. In the movie, a Scotch Mist is the drink Bacall was having while talking race horses with Bogey. (in the clip above)

Scotch Mist

Ingredients
1/2 cup crushed ice
2-3 ounces Scotch (or bourbon or brandy)
Twist of lemon peel

Preparation
Pack the ice in an Old-fashioned glass
Pour in the spirits
Twist the peel over the drink to release the oil, then drop it in.

Enjoy your cocktail with this retro-appetizer…

Bacon-Wrapped Chestnuts

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package bacon
2 (8 ounce) cans water chestnuts, drained
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Cut bacon slices into thirds. Wrap each water chestnut with bacon and secure it with a toothpick. Place into a 9x13-inch baking pan.

Stir ketchup, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce in a saucepan over medium heat until just about to boil; pour over bacon-wrapped water chestnuts.

Bake in the preheated oven until bacon is completely cooked and crisp, about 45 to 50 minutes. YUM! They’ll be gone before the movie is over!

Trivia (taken from TCM files):

• Director Howard Hawks and star Humphrey Bogart got into an argument as to whether one of the characters was murdered or committed suicide. They sent a wire to author Raymond Chandler asking him to settle the issue, but he replied that he didn't know either. The question is left unresolved in the original novel by Chandler.

• The scene where Bogart and Lauren Bacall make suggestive talk about horses was added almost a year after filming was otherwise complete to inject the film with the kind of risqué innuendos that had made To Have and Have Not (1944), and Lauren Bacall, so popular a few years earlier.

• Mars' henchmen are named Sidney and Pete, a tribute to Bogie's frequent costars Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

• Eager to repeat the success of To Have and Have Not (1944), Jack Warner gave Howard Hawks $50,000 to purchase the rights for The Big Sleep. Hawks bought the rights for $5,000 and pocketed the rest.

• Raymond Chandler claimed that Martha Vickers gave such an intense performance as Carmen Sternwood that she completely overshadowed Lauren Bacall, and that much of Vickers' performance ended up on the cutting room floor as a result.

Directed by Howard Hawks
Based on the novel The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (New York, 1939)
Released Aug 31, 1946

Enjoy this wonderful classic film noir tonight and let me know how you liked the cocktail and chestnuts!
…Jill