The Big Sleep (1946 film) Quotations

The Big Sleep is a 1946 film about private detective Philip Marlowe who is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love.

Directed by Howard Hawks. Written by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman, based on the novel by Raymond Chandler.

The type of man she hated ...was the type she wanted! taglines

Dialogue

Carmen: What are you? A prizefighter?

Marlowe: No, I'm a shamus.

Carmen: What's a shamus?

Marlowe: It's a private detective.

Carmen: You're making fun of me.

Marlowe: Uh, uh.

Carmen: [she leans back and falls into his arms] You're cute.

Marlowe: [to the butler, Norris] You ought to wean her, she's old enough.

Sternwood: I seem to exist largely on heat, like a newborn spider. The orchids are an excuse for the heat. Do you like orchids?

Marlowe: Not particularly.

Sternwood: Nasty things! Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, and their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption.

Sternwood: [about talking to Carmen about her debts] If I did, she'd just suck her thumb and look coy.

Marlowe: I met her in the hall and she did that to me. Then she tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.

Vivian: So you're a private detective. I didn't know they existed, except in books. Or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors. My, you're a mess, aren't you?

Marlowe: I'm not very tall either. Next time, I'll come on stilts, wear a white tie and carry a tennis racket.

Marlowe: Would you happen to have a Ben-Hur, 1860?

Agnes: A what?

Marlowe: I said, 'Would you happen to have a Ben-Hur, 1860'?

Agnes: Oh, a first edition?

Marlowe: No, no, no, no, no. The third. The third. The one with the erratum on page one-sixteen.

Agnes: I'm afraid not.

Marlowe: Uh, how about a Chevalier Audubon 1840 - a full set, of course?

Agnes: Not at the moment.

Marlowe: You do sell books? Hmm?

Vivian: You go too far, Marlowe.

Marlowe: Those are harsh words to throw at a man, especially when he's walking out of your bedroom.

Mars: Convenient the door being open when you didn't have a key.

Marlowe: Yeah, wasn't it? By the way, how did you happen to have one?

Mars: Is it any of your business?

Marlowe: I could make it my business.

Mars: I could make your business mine.

Marlowe: But you wouldn't like it. The pay's too small.

Agnes: That's what I always draw. Never once a man who's smart all the way around the course. Never once.

Marlowe: Did I hurt you much, sugar?

Agnes: You and every other man I've ever met.

Marlowe: You've got a touch of class, but, uh...I don't know how - how far you can go.

Vivian: A lot depends on who's in the saddle. Go ahead Marlowe, I like the way you work. In case you don't know it, you're doing all right.

Marlowe: There's one thing I can't figure out.

Vivian: What makes me run?

Marlowe: Uh-huh.

Vivian: I'll give you a little hint. Sugar won't work. It's been tried.

Carmen: What does the hat-check girl get for a tip?

Marlowe: I'm trying to think of something appropriate. How did you get in here?

Carmen: Bet you can't guess.

Marlowe: Oh, but I can. You came in through the keyhole like Peter Pan.

Carmen: Who's he?

Marlowe: Hmm. A guy I used to know around a pool room.

Carmen: You're cute.

Marlowe: I'm getting cuter every minute.

Taglines

The type of man she hated . . . was the type she wanted !

The picture they were born for!

Cast

Humphrey Bogart - Philip Marlowe
Lauren Bacall - Vivian Sternwood Rutledge
John Ridgely - Eddie Mars
Martha Vickers - Carmen Sternwood
Dorothy Malone - Acme Bookstore Clerk
Peggy Knudsen - Mona Mars
Regis Toomey - Chief Inspector Bernie Ohls
Charles Waldron - General Sternwood
Charles D. Brown - Norris (Sternwood's butler)
Bob Steele - Lash Canino
Elisha Cook Jr. - Harry Jones
Louis Jean Heydt - Joe Brody

Quoternity