The classic penultimate paragraph from the novel doesn't get read in the climax of the Hawks film, but it does in this one. That for me is the one triumph of this version.
It's the paragraph that includes the lines...
'What did it matter where you lay once you were dead....you were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep.'
...and makes some sense of the title of the film/novel.
And what a great title it is. Probably my favorite noir title.
What's the Spanish for drunken bum?
'What did it matter where you lay once you were dead....you were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep.'
...and makes some sense of the title of the film/novel.
I doubt this was better than the original at any point.
Its that man again!!
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Actually, the remake takes a lot of prose word for word from Chandler's novel while the original did not use all that much. The remake faithfully follows the plotline of the book thus making it understandable whereas the original is enjoyed in spite of the loose ends it leaves unresolved. Mitchum plays Marlowe closer to the character Chandler created than Bogie does since there is no gratuitous romance in the remake. As Marlowe says after making-out with the freak with the ugliest hair-style in motion picture history, "I work at what I do" or words to that effect. Which means he is more interested in doing his job than bedding whacked out women.
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