Directed by Howard Hawks. Written by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman, based on the novel by Raymond Chandler.

Dialogue

Carmen: What are you? A prizefighter?

Marlowe: No, I'm a shamus.

Carmen: What's a shamus?

Marlowe: It's a private detective.

Carmen: You're making fun of me.

Marlowe: Uh, uh.

Carmen: [she leans back and falls into his arms] You're cute.

Marlowe: [to the butler, Norris] You ought to wean her, she's old enough.

Sternwood: I seem to exist largely on heat, like a newborn spider. The orchids are an excuse for the heat. Do you like orchids?

Marlowe: Not particularly.

Sternwood: Nasty things! Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, and their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption.

Sternwood: [about talking to Carmen about her debts] If I did, she'd just suck her thumb and look coy.

Marlowe: I met her in the hall and she did that to me. Then she tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.

Vivian: So you're a private detective. I didn't know they existed, except in books. Or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors. My, you're a mess, aren't you?

Marlowe: I'm not very tall either. Next time, I'll come on stilts, wear a white tie and carry a tennis racket.

Marlowe: Would you happen to have a Ben-Hur, 1860?

Agnes: A what?

Marlowe: I said, 'Would you happen to have a Ben-Hur, 1860'?

Agnes: Oh, a first edition?

Marlowe: No, no, no, no, no. The third. The third. The one with the erratum on page one-sixteen.

Agnes: I'm afraid not.

Marlowe: Uh, how about a Chevalier Audubon 1840 - a full set, of course?

Agnes: Not at the moment.

Marlowe: You do sell books? Hmm?

Vivian: You go too far, Marlowe.

Marlowe: Those are harsh words to throw at a man, especially when he's walking out of your bedroom.

Mars: Convenient the door being open when you didn't have a key.

Marlowe: Yeah, wasn't it? By the way, how did you happen to have one?

Mars: Is it any of your business?

Marlowe: I could make it my business.

Mars: I could make your business mine.

Marlowe: But you wouldn't like it. The pay's too small.

Agnes: That's what I always draw. Never once a man who's smart all the way around the course. Never once.

Marlowe: Did I hurt you much, sugar?

Agnes: You and every other man I've ever met.

Marlowe: You've got a touch of class, but, uh...I don't know how - how far you can go.

Vivian: A lot depends on who's in the saddle. Go ahead Marlowe, I like the way you work. In case you don't know it, you're doing all right.

Marlowe: There's one thing I can't figure out.

Vivian: What makes me run?

Marlowe: Uh-huh.

Vivian: I'll give you a little hint. Sugar won't work. It's been tried.

Carmen: What does the hat-check girl get for a tip?

Marlowe: I'm trying to think of something appropriate. How did you get in here?

Carmen: Bet you can't guess.

Marlowe: Oh, but I can. You came in through the keyhole like Peter Pan.

Carmen: Who's he?

Marlowe: Hmm. A guy I used to know around a pool room.

Carmen: You're cute.

Marlowe: I'm getting cuter every minute.

Taglines

• The type of man she hated . . . was the type she wanted !

• The picture they were born for!

Cast

• Humphrey Bogart - Philip Marlowe
• Lauren Bacall - Vivian Sternwood Rutledge
• John Ridgely - Eddie Mars
• Martha Vickers - Carmen Sternwood
• Dorothy Malone - Acme Bookstore Clerk
• Peggy Knudsen - Mona Mars
• Regis Toomey - Chief Inspector Bernie Ohls
• Charles Waldron - General Sternwood
• Charles D. Brown - Norris (Sternwood's butler)
• Bob Steele - Lash Canino
• Elisha Cook Jr. - Harry Jones
• Louis Jean Heydt - Joe Brody