Don’t snooze during The Big Sleep, you might miss something

Although the narrative is convoluted, The Big Sleep is an enjoyable and romantically charged film noir.

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in 1946 classic The Big Sleep.

Hollywood legend has it that even original author and sometimes screenwriter Raymond Chandler couldn’t explain certain plot points to director Howard Hawks, but that doesn’t dim the enjoyment of the great 1946 film noir The Big Sleep (Thursday, 6:35pm, TCM). Sure the narrative is convoluted, but on the other hand, there’s the electricity between leads and real-life lovers Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Tell-tale signs — petrol rationing stickers and the like — point to a World War II era shoot, but the film wasn’t released until 1946 because its story wasn’t essential to the American war effort. This is a genre film any self-respecting film buff should see at least once.

On Friday, Graeme Blundell will offer his inevitably pithy and informative comments on one of the most memorable films of the 1970s and Al Pacino’s career, the 1975 crime thriller Dog Day Afternoon (Friday, 8:35pm, Masterpiece Movies). Director Sidney Lumet, who built a stellar career portraying the grittier side of New York City on film, excels at both atmosphere and character development, as Pacino’s loser Sonny and his pal Sal (John Cazale) bumblingly attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank, only to be surrounded by police led by a blustery detective memorably portrayed by Charles Durning. One of those rare films that dares you to change the channel.

Another of those, again featuring Pacino, is director Michael Mann’s critically acclaimed 1999 Big Tobacco drama The Insider (Wednesday, 2:40pm, Thriller Movies). A heavily made-up Russell Crowe is riveting as industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, with Pacino as real-life CBS 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman. Mann’s edgy direction and the hair-trigger performances render the film and absorbing and memorable thriller.

A caper film with more of a devil-may-care feel is Alfred Hitchcock’s colourful 1955 romantic thriller To Catch a Thief (Sunday, 8:30pm, Fox Classics). Cary Grant stars as John “The Cat” Robie, a retired burglar lured back to find a copycat in the French Riviera. In her last film for Hitchcock, Grace Kelly shines as Grant’s love interest, and the sunny locations—shot in the then-new Vista-Vision widescreen format by Oscar winner Robert Burks—render this one of the master’s most satisfying lesser films.

Currently scheduled for a big-budget Hollywood remake, director John Carpenter’s 1986 martial arts action film Big Trouble in Little China (Tuesday, 2:35am, Action Movies) is an energetic and endearingly cheesy adventure in which truck driver Kurt Russell becomes enmeshed in the events neatly described by the title. A box office bomb when first released, the film has attained a vaunted cult status, which explains the remake but not necessarily the film’s scattershot appeal.

The Big Sleep (PG) 4 stars

Thursday, 6.35pm, TCM (428)

Dog Day Afternoon (M) 4 stars

Friday, 8.35pm, Masterpiece Movies (242)

The Insider (M) 4 stars

Thursday, 2.40am, Thriller Movies (249)