Brew Views: The Big Sleep

A kiss before dying.

THE BIG SLEEP
By AARON MESH

The story goes that when Howard Hawks was making The Big Sleep, industry censors said his conclusion was too lenient toward organized crime. So he asked them to write the ending themselves, and they provided him with a terrific massacre. The moral? If celluloid must meet an untimely demise, it should at least go out in a hail of gunfire. So let us rejoice in the 35 mm titles playing this week in a festival called Noirville: The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Touch of Evil, The Killers, Kiss Me Deadly, Out of the Past, The Asphalt Jungle, Nightmare Alley and Night of The Hunter. That's a breathtaking marquee, and a fitting bloodbath.

  1. Showing at: Cinema 21. Full showtimes below.
  2. Best paired with: Laurelwood Blonde.
  3. Also showing: The Fly (Laurelhurst).

WWeek 2015

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