Marlowe: Morally ambiguous private detective.
General Sternwood: military-war veteran, oil rich, privileged, powerful, old and dying after years of substance abuse.
Carmen Sternwood: rich, spoiled, drug-addicted, nymphomaniac, psycho-killer, coerced into pornography.
Vivian Sternwood Rutledge: alcoholic, gambler, divorced, strong, practical.
Arthur Geiger: one-eyed, frumpy, gay, dealer in pornography and blackmail, owns a bookstore as a front.
Carol Lundgren: Geiger’s adolescent gay lover, who kills for his man.
Eddie Mars: well-dressed crime boss who deals mainly in gambling and blackmail.
Mona Mars: Though Marlowe wants her, she sentimentalizes her husband and tries to convince herself that he's not a killer.
Lash Canino: short, squat, professional thug and killer.
Harry Jones: small, former bootlegger and minor chiseler on the fringes of organized crime.
Sean Regan: handsome and vigorous Irish
soldier-turned-bootlegger.
Sean Regan
"that Irish ex-legger old Sternwood hired to do his drinking for him"
"missing" at the beginning of the film
later determined to have been murdered by Mars (in the film) and Carmen (in the novel)
Owen Taylor
the Sternwood chauffer
in love with Carmen
he was in the Packard pulled out of the water (probably killed by Brody, though that remains unclear and no one seems to care)
murdered Geiger
Arthur Gwynn Geiger
Porn shop owner and blackmailer
shot in his home by Taylor
Joe Brody
blackmailer who stole the film from the camera at Geiger's house
killed by Lundgren (Geiger's lover) who mistakenly thought he had killed Geiger
Harry Jones
common criminal in league with Agnes
poisoned by Canino, Mars' henchman
Lash Canino
Henchman for Eddie Mars
killed by Marlowe
Eddie Mars
Kingpin
killed by his own men
Uncertainty
Corruption
The greenhouse as a microcosm of the city
Nihilism and existentialism
Film Noir
Anti-establishment; chaotic, even anarchic
In stark contrast to American idealism, the city is where dreams die.
Vice-ridden: drugs, alcohol, violence, sex, pornography, prostitution, gambling
Contradictory and complex
Morally ambiguous protagonist
Femme fatale
Anguish and insecurity portrayed by characters and felt by audience
Visually and thematically dark and shadowy
Sex (almost)
Women can’t help but instantly fall for Marlowe:*
Marlowe refuses to have sex with the spoiled, stoned, nymphomaniac Carmen Sternwood because she blatantly throws herself at him. (In the novel she waits naked in his bed for him.)
Marlowe doesn’t have time to have sex with Carole Douglas, the librarian, though she seems to have all the time in the world.
Marlowe is too busy to have sex at Eddie Mars’ gambling joint even though hatcheck girl Lorraine Miller and cigarette girl Shelby Payne step all over each other’s lines to be first in line.
Marlowe plans to have sex later with the butch taxi-cab driver Joy Barlow because he knows it “wouldn’t be bad.”
Marlowe finally has time to have sex with the school-marmish, ACME bookstore clerk. When it rains it pours.
Marlowe wants very much to have sex with Mona Mars but cannot because she is married to a crime boss.
Of course Marlowe never tries to
have sex with Vivian Sternwood Rutledge and she therefore falls in
love with him in the end. (in the book she tries to kill him in the
end.)
Turner Classic Movies photos, credits, etc.
AMC Filmsite Complete story
* from Artemus Ward