Credit Sequence Car POV Drive -- With a Hidden Twist

Whereas Robert Mitchum's first Philip Marlowe movie -- "Farewell, My Lovely" opened with sexy-melancholy 40's music over a montage of 40's scenery, the modern-day "The Big Sleep" opens with a modern and edgy Jerry Fielding score and a "gimmick" which seems to alternate between being intriguing and irritating.

Starting as the car goes off the freeway off-ramp and then following a winding road for some miles until it ends up at a rich man's hidden-away mansion, the credits of The Big Sleep unfurl over a long, long, LONG POV shot from inside the moving car of the entire drive.

We never see Robert Mitchum. We never even see his hands on the steering wheel. The camera is poised right BEHIND the steering wheel and we drive the car as if driving it ourselves -- the ultimate "private eye's point of view." . Indeed, a long drive is necessary because so many damn NAMES have to cross the screen...the "all star" cast(well, sort of) the "name" guest stars (like Richard Todd and James Donald, who were "big" in the 50's, and Colin Blakely of the 70's).

I've looked at this driving sequence a couple of times and I elected to "study" it a bit on the last view. For instance, as the car moves forward on the country road, some uniformed riders come past the car on the left -- this is "horse country" for some.

BUT the big surprise -- which I didn't even notice the first couple of times I looked at this -- comes near the end of the drive, as Marlowe's car heads for the open space in the road surrounded by the wall that guards the entrance to James Stewart's mansion.

Just as "our POV car" almost reaches the wall -- suddenly from our RIGHT emerges another car, passing our car, cutting in FRONT of our car, and managing to squeeze through the opening in the wall just without hitting the wall and causing a huge crash.

The other car then JETS so far ahead of "our car" that it is like any other speeder who leaves us in the dust.

But wait: we're not on the open highway. That car is ALSO going to the mansion estate. Who is driving it?

Look closer: a woman with reddish brown hair. An expensive sports car convertible.

We will see that car later in the movie and we will see the woman driver.

Its Camilla Sternwood, the younger of James Stewart's two daughters. Who is called "the crazy daughter" by some, and "the idiot daughter" by others. Candy Clark.

By the time "our car" pulls to a stop in front of the mansion, we can see the sports car parked there. But no sight of Candy Clark. She will make her first -- very brief and very nuts -- appearance moments later when Mitchum can be seen and enters the house.

Its a great little touch, really. All through The Big Sleep, the nutty Candy Clark is strictly kept to sudden, brief "teasing appearances" in which the movie resolutely keeps us from getting to know her better. She just flits in and out, nuts (and a couple of brief times, nude...which has us wanting to spend even more time with her. No dice.)

And yet, I doubt if hardly anybody noticed that Candy Clark FIRST shows up as a car that goes around "our car" , cuts us off, almost crashes into a wall, and yet successfully navigates to the mansion. Camilla Sternwood has her talents.

Later in the film, Mitchum watches from a distance as Candy Clark drives up in that same car in front of a house, hitting the brakes hard, screeching to a halt, a speed demon with no calm to her at all. Its a great character trait and "introduced" in the initial driving sequence.

When the movie is all over, "The Big Sleep" returns to the car POV to show Mitchum driving back to the freeway. Symmetry.