Dorothy Malone and The Big Sleep

I learned something quite sad yesterday: Dorothy Malone passed away. I only knew her from a single scene in The Big Sleep, where she played the geeky yet sexy bookshop clerk who flirts with private eye Philip Marlowe. It is an extended scene from the novel, yet it remains quite short, but very memorable. I don't want to sound nostalgic, but you don't make seduction scenes like this anymore, where no innuendo is lost, nothing is gratuitous, every word, look, movement is so effective. So I decided to share it on this blog as an homage to the actress.

The Big Sleep (just because)

I was just thinking about it: I am in the mood to watch some old black and white crime movies, some good old fashioned stuff full of atmosphere. I thought about watching The Big Sleep and I am very tempted to buy it. I read The Big Sleep in cégep, in its French translation (by Boris Vian), for a course in American literature. I never read it again, even though I read now most of the novels of Raymond Chandler (well, the majority of them). The movie, however, I watched a few times, the first time in cégep for the same course of American literature. It's one I never get bored of. The plot is a bit muddled up at times, it has differences from the novel that don't quite work, but there is such atmosphere! Oh and there is Humphrey Bogart. He does not quite look like Philip Marlowe, he is a bit too old for one, but he's got this attitude. And he's Bogart. I recently discovered the trailer on YouTube. I watched it over and over again today. I uploaded it here, because it has plenty of atmosphere too.