The New Scenes in Hawks The Big Sleep Essay -- Movie Film Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the film version of The Big Sleep, Howard Hawks invents scenes and characters that do not appear in Raymond Chandler's novel. No rare bookstore trist, no rough and ready female cabdriver, no winking cigarette girl grace the pages of his book; Marlowe and Vivian never talk of horses; and Carmen's always naked. But not in the film. In the film, she wears clothes, Marlowe is a jockey, Vivian is a horse, and all these characters appear. Faulkner, Brackett, and Furthman write these elements into the screenplay. But they do not develop ideas the text does not already suggest. The ideas are there--just evolved into new species that echo the original animal. Hawks had to do it, for the Production Code forbid directors to present any material that was overtly sexual, violent, vulgar or otherwise, profane. Therefore, since the Hays Office regulated what Hawks could present on film, his writers embedded the censored material in new forms. Todd McCarthy explains that, "the writers . . . and director . . . extract[ed] the maximum character and suggestiveness from every situation" (387). In other words, they invented and modified scenes and created characters while Hawks manipulated the mise-en-scene to suggest the forbidden ideas in Chandler's novel.    Three tenets of the Production Code impact the film directly. The Hays Office states as follows:    1. Sadism, homosexuality, incest, etc., should not even be hinted at in motion pictures. 2. The treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects should be subject always to the dictate of good taste and a regard for the sensibilities of the audience. 3. Complete nudity is never permitted. This includes nudity in f... ...tes, but he does not present everything. Nor can he, for the Production Code restricts what he can represent on film in 1946. For this reason, Hawks eliminated some ideas--i.e. Geiger's homosexuality, Vivian's violent aggression--entirely. But he kept the one element he felt he could not omit. In the novel, Carmen's nude figure possesses an incalculable amount of energy. Hawks wanted that energy to carry the film. Therefore, he employed writers who would help him inject the power of her image into the film in ways the Hays Office would accept.    Works Cited Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. New York: Vintage Books, 1939. McCarthy, Todd. Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood. New York: Grove Press, 1997. Moley, Raymond. The Hays Office. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1945. The Big Sleep. Dir. Howard Hawks. Universal, 1946.