The Sheila Variations

Obsession Central: The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep, as incomprehensible as it is, is fast becoming one of my favorite movies. My Top 50 movies list is due for a HUGE overhaul.

There's so much juicy stuff to enjoy in The Big Sleep ...

-- The way Mr. Sternwood, dying, cooped up in his greenhouse, gets this overwhelmingly famished look on his face, as he watches Marlowe (Bogie) take a sip of brandy. It is like - the way he yearns for a taste - even though alcohol is now forbidden to him - the yearning is so loud he doesn't even need any lines to convey it. I watch Mr. Sternwood's reactions to Marlowe drinking and I can taste the brandy

-- During the filming of the entire first scene between Bogart and Bacall - where he is called to talk to her in her bedroom, and there she is, pouring a drink - Anyway, Bacall said that, as always, she was so nervous for that scene that she was literally trembling from head to foot. She calls it her "quake". So much so that she thought she would drop the glass onto the floor. Funny - you watch the scene, and you'd never know.

-- Does anyone remember the female cab driver? Marlowe gets into her cab, and basically tells her to follow Geiger's car. She has black hair, a little cap on, she's cute. At the end, they have some pretty outrageous sexual banter, which goes something like: He hands her a big tip and says, "Here. Buy yourself a cigar." She hands him a card and says, "Listen - if you ever need a ride again..." He grins at her, takes the card, and says, "Day or night?" Her reply is, "Night. I work during the day." And they both laugh - and she drives off.

Anyway - that actress' name was Joy Barlowe - and this was her first job. She also was quakingly nervous. She had this big scene with Humphrey Bogart, ya da ya da, she was terrified.

In addition to all of that - little kid gloves were part of her costume - and they made it very difficult for her to slide the card out of her wallet to hand over to him. She couldn't get it right. Her fingers would stumble, she couldn't get the card out, they'd have to do another take.

Barlowe describes being positively mortified. To make Humphrey Bogart do 10 takes, because she couldn't do this simple little action of handing him a card. She thought she was going to get fired.

Finally, after a fumbling take, Bogart said to her, "Try it this way, honey," - and he put one of the cards above the sun-visor. She could just reach up, grab it, hand it to him.

It worked.

She was always grateful to him for that. For his patience with this new and nervous actress, and for coming up with a smooth solution to her problem.

If you watch the moment, too - it's a great moment. Soooo smooth. She is this black-haired kind of fresh-mouthed cabbie, and he is grinning into the window at her, appreciating her.

Nice.

-- The amazing actress, Martha Vickers, who played Lauren Bacall's sister - remember her? The one who gets the family into the whole mess in the first place, getting messed up with pornographers, and drugs, etc. Marlowe describes her as "Pretty....And pretty wild." She did such an incredible job with her role (and she was just a teenager, pretty new to acting) - that Howard Hawks (the director) felt she upstaged Bacall, and so cut her scenes back considerably.

But anyway, here's a story about Martha Vickers, the teenage actress who so convincingly played a drugged-out thumb-sucking nymphomaniac.

Hawks had an idea for one of the scenes - where Marlowe comes in, and finds her sitting, all dressed up in the empty house - obviously some kind of lecherous photo shoot had been going on. And Marlowe comes upon her, and she is high on drugs, and completely out of it. Anyway, Hawks had an idea for this scene (which ended up not making it into the movie): He wanted Vickers to simulate an orgasm.

He asked her to do so. This is in front of Bogart, Regis Toomey (who plays the DA), and a couple of other people.

"Sweetheart, what we want here is for you to simulate that you're having an orgasm."

Martha Vickers asked, "What's an orgasm?"

Nobody spoke. Nobody knew what to do. Literally. These three men, Hawks, Bogart, and Toomey - standing there with a teenage actress - asking them what an orgasm was. Dead silence. Hawks called a 10 minute break, and called Toomey aside. He asked Toomey to please go and explain to "Miss Vickers" what an orgasm was.

Toomey, who apparently was a good-natured fellow, but also the product of a strict Irish Catholic upbringing (so funny to imagine!!), went over to Martha and explained it to her. (Wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that one.)

Toomey said later to Bogart, "The girl didn't know anything. I asked, 'Are you a virgin?' 'Uh yes.' 'Do you know what an orgasm is? Mr. Hawks wants you to be having an orgasm here.' 'No, I don't know what it is.' 'You don't know what an orgasm is?' 'No.' And so, dammit, I explained to her what an orgasm was. And she got the idea all right. Howard liked the scene very much."

After that, it became a huge joke. Hawks would say to Toomey, "If I ever have to explain an orgasm again, I am calling on you." And Bogie would laugh and laugh like a madman.

For some reason I just love that story.

Posted by sheila