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This chapter challenges the idea that stock genres evoke stock emotions. In the case of crime fiction, the anticipated movement is from the uncertainty of an unsolved crime towards the certainty of resolution. In the case of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, however, Marlowe’s change of mood invites readers to notice that while they are immersed in the suspense of the text, and thus rushed along on the roller-coaster of end-orientation, they also process the characters’ feelings, which do not necessarily move in the same direction or at the same pace. The emotions displayed in The Big Sleep suggest that crime fiction has a far broader emotional range. The chapter draws on these reading affects to challenge the authority of the novel’s solution.

This chapter explores Hawk’s experiences working with Humphrey Bogart, specifically on the film The Big Sleep. Hawks describes the successful chemistry that continued between Bacall and Bogart, and details how he worked with author Raymond Chandler to pull the film together. He also explores the risqué double-entendres used in the film and how the film censors allowed them to go to production.

Reapproaching more canonical Hollywood novels in the context of three-color Technicolor and the Production Code, this chapter argues that Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (both 1939) countered Technicolor treatments of Southern California in film, which had reified not only the industry’s sanitized façade but also boosterism’s whitewashed history. In opposition to the Technicolor Corporation’s persistent claims to realism, The Day of the Locust laments mass culture’s colonization of the senses, while The Big Sleep critiques the unreality of everyday life in a place built on a commodified past. West and Chandler depict a Hollywood landscape collapsing in on itself, becoming visually indistinguishable from a Technicolor film yet morally unrecognizable by the standards of the screen.

Hawks reflects on the critical reception of his films and addresses the interpretations that many critics project on his work. He recalls a press conference concerning the film The Big Sleep and talks about his personal view of film criticism.

This chapter focuses on transitions both personal and creative for Steiner. After his divorce from Louise, Max found happiness with a new companion, former singer Lee Blair. The end of World War II marked a change in Hollywood filmmaking styles, and Steiner responded to the darker, more mature movies being produced at Warner Bros. with a leaner, less Wagnerian style. Film noir titles like Howard Hawks’s The Big Sleep and Michael Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce benefited greatly from Max’s scoring, which added propulsive energy and extra layers of character illumination. But Steiner’s obsession with work, and his late-night gambling with friends like composer Victor Young, distracted Max from a growing problem at home: the erratic behavior of his emotionally troubled son, Ronald.