The Big Sleep

Carmen:
You're not very tall, are you?

Marlowe:
Well, I, uh, I try to be.

Carmen:
Not bad looking. Oh you probably know it.

Marlowe:
Thank you.

Carmen:
What's your name?

Marlowe:
Reilly. Doghouse Reilly.

Carmen:
That's a funny kind of name.

Marlowe:
You think so.

Carmen:
Uh huh. 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, huh.

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:
How do you like your brandy, sir?

Marlowe:
In a glass.

Sternwood:
You are looking, sir, at a very dull survival of a very gaudy life - crippled, paralyzed in both legs, very little I can eat, and my sleep is so near waking that it's hardly worth the name. 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" (actually blackmail)] 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.

Vivian:
I doubt if even that would help. Now this business of Dad's. You think you can handle it for him?

Marlowe:
It shouldn't be too tough.

Vivian:
Really? I would have thought a case like that took a little effort.

Marlowe:
Not too much.

Vivian:
What will your first step be?

Marlowe:
The usual one.

Vivian:
I didn't know there was a usual one.

Marlowe:
Oh sure there is. It comes complete with diagrams on page forty-seven of 'How to Be a Detective in Ten Easy Lessons' correspondence school textbook.

Vivian:
You know, I don't see what there is to be cagey about, Mr. Marlowe. And I don't like your manners.

Marlowe:
I'm not crazy about yours. I didn't ask to see you. I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them long winter evenings. And I don't mind your ritzing me, or drinking your lunch out of a bottle, but don't waste your time trying to cross-examine me.

Vivian:
People don't talk to me like that.

Marlowe:
Ohhh.

Vivian:
Do you always think you can handle people like, uh, trained seals?

Marlowe:
Uh, huh. I usually get away with it, too.

Vivian:
How nice for you.

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.

Marlowe:
You wanna tell me now?

Vivian:
Tell you what?

Marlowe:
What it is you're trying to find out. You know, it's a funny thing. You're trying to find out what your father hired me to find out, and I'm trying to find out why you want to find out.

Vivian:
You could go on forever, couldn't you? Anyway it'll give us something to talk about next time we meet.

Marlowe:
Among other things.

Marlowe:
My, my, my! Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains. You know, you're the second guy I've met today that seems to think a gat in the hand means the world with the tail. Ha, ha, ha. Put it down, Joe. The other guy's name was Eddie Mars. You ever hear of him?

Brody:
Nope.

Marlowe:
If he ever gets wise to where you were last night in the rain, you'll hear of him.

Carmen:
Can I have my picture now?

Marlowe:
No.

Carmen:
Can I have my gun back?

Marlowe:
Later.

Carmen:
You're cute. I like you.

Marlowe:
What you see's nothing. I've got a Balinese dancing girl tattooed across my chest.

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.

Vivian:
Tell me: What do you usually do when you're not working?

Marlowe:
Oh, play the horses, fool around.

Vivian:
No women?

Marlowe:
I'm generally working on something most of the time.

Vivian:
Could that be stretched to include me?

Marlowe:
Well I like you. I've told you that before.

Vivian:
I like hearing you say it. But you didn't do much about it.

Marlowe:
Well, neither did you.

Vivian:
Well, speaking of horses, I like to play them myself. But I like to see them work out a little first, see if they're front-runners or come from behind, find out what their hole-card is. What makes them run.

Marlowe:
Find out mine?

Vivian:
I think so.

Marlowe:
Go ahead.

Vivian:
I'd say you don't like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a lead, take a little breather in the backstretch, and then come home free.

Marlowe:
You don't like to be rated yourself.

Vivian:
I haven't met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?

Marlowe:
Well, I can't tell till I've seen you over a distance of ground. 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.

Marlowe:
Let's begin with what Eddie Mars has on you.

Vivian:
If he had anything, would it be any of your business? You've already been paid, haven't you?

Marlowe:
Yeah, by you.

Vivian:
Are you after more money?

Marlowe:
Well, I guess you've got a right to ask that. No, I'm not after more money. I've already been well paid. I've got another reason.

Vivian:
You like my father, don't you?

Marlowe:
Mmm, hmm.

Vivian:
Then why don't you stop?

Marlowe:
Remember I told you I was beginning to like another one of the Sternwoods?

Vivian:
I wish you'd show it.

Marlowe:
That should be awful easy. [He kisses her]

Vivian:
I liked that. I'd like more. [They kiss a second time] That's even better.

Marlowe:
All right, now that's settled. What's Eddie Mars got on you?

Vivian:
So that's the way...

Marlowe:
That's the way it is. Kissing is all right. It's nice. I'd like to do more of it. But first, I want to find out what Eddie Mars has on you.

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.

Vivian:
You've forgotten one thing. Me.

Marlowe:
[pulling her to him] What's wrong with you?

Vivian:
Nothing you can't fix.

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

The picture they were born for!