The Big Sleep is a Bogart / Bacall movie from the end of WWII. Bogart is 44 to Bacall’s striking 20.

Filmed in 1945 for release in 1946, wartime giveaways are all the men calling each other “soldier” and the fact the movie is absolutely stuffed with women, to the point of being campy (esp. the scene in the taxi). The sex ratio is way off because all the men are otherwise occupied fighting The Axis, leaving Bogey alone with the ladies.

The movie’s about changing sex roles too. There are two versions, partly because Bacall had a couple of lines about horse racing and saddles (pictured above) added to sex-up her character. Roger Ebert says this version is a qualitatively different film — a “Hollywood” film — an example of a studio cut improving a director’s cut. Somehow I don’t trust that. I’d like to see the restored Noir version, but it’s hard to pirate.

It’s one of those movies whose plot was so complex, so edited, it became Gordian. You’re not supposed to understand the film — no one involved in making it did. It’s one of those rare, great mystery works that is actually mysterious.