The Big Sleep

Based on Raymond Chandler's novel, this remake of Howard Hawks' 1946 classic film noir detective story (which starred Humphrey Bogart) inexplicably moves the story's setting from Los Angeles to London. In this 1978 version, directed by Briton Michael Winner, Robert Mitchum plays Philip Marlowe. In the story, Marlowe flies to London, hired by a wealthy but disabled retired military man, General Sternwood (James Stewart), to find out who is blackmailing his daughters, and why. In unraveling this complex mystery, he witnesses a murder, constantly stumbles across corpses, runs afoul of the police and underworld gangs, and slowly begins to appreciate the extent of the decadence of his client's children. This all-star production was coldly received by the critics, who could not fail to compare it to the (much better) Hawks original.