THE BIG SLEEP, directed by Howard Hawkes, written by William Faulkner, Jules Furthmann and Leigh Brackett, based on the novel by Raymond Chandler, 114 minutes, unrated. Tonight only, Pickering Square, Bangor.

Tonight in downtown Bangor’s Pickering Square, scores of smoky, shady characters will gather in the shadows for a little murder, a little mayhem, some tough talk and a few gunfights. Some will be lucky to get out alive.

I’m not talking about the audience but what will be playing onscreen in the square – the 1946 Howard Hawkes noir classic “The Big Sleep,” a baffling yet wildly entertaining movie based on Raymond Chandler’s 1939 novel.

The movie is being shown free as part of the River City Cinema Society’s Noir Beneath the Stars film series, which will take place in the square every Friday night at sundown until Aug. 13. Bring your lawn chairs.

I’m a co-sponsor of the series, so this review is biased. You should know that.

You should also know that the “The Big Sleep” was chosen for a reason. It’s one of the finest examples of the noir genre, a film enjoyed more for its individual scenes than as a whole.

As written by William Faulkner, Jules Furthmann and Leigh Brackett, the movie stars Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe, a private detective who makes the mistake of getting caught in the throes of a ruthless, confounding case. For his trouble, he makes $25 a day plus expenses. By the end of the movie, Marlowe has good reason to question whether he’s charging enough.

Saturated with shadows, style and clouds of cigarette smoke, the movie, in its most streamlined form, follows Marlowe as he tries to get to the bottom of a blackmail case involving the saucy socialite Carmen Sternwood (Martha Vickers). Since Carmen is a conniving kitten, all isn’t what it seems with this cookie.

Neither is it with Carmen’s equally mysterious sister Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall), a gorgeous femme fatale who deepens the dysfunction by adding her own bad habits to the mix, which Marlowe inevitably finds himself fixing. He also fixes Vivian with a kiss, but that comes later after several characters are either gunned down, drowned, poisoned or pummeled in a handful of genuinely thrilling scenes.

What I love about “The Big Sleep” is that everyone here acts as if they’re in the know when really they’re out of the loop. The cheap sort of slum hustling that goes on in the film would either bring down a red-light district or brighten it, depending on how you view the world. Max Steiner’s brassy score charges the atmosphere with worry and dread, but Hawkes counters with a rush of dialogue that’s so witty and racy, it generates big laughs.

Nobody talks as they do in noir, and that’s a great deal of the fun. In “The Big Sleep,” they bite off their words with a mince that’s hypnotic in its rapid-fire rhythm. An early exchange between Marlowe and Gen. Sternwood, whose daughters prove so problematic to Marlowe, is a good example:

Sternwood: “How do you like your brandy, sir?”

Marlowe: “In a glass.”

Sternwood: “I used to like mine with champagne. Champagne as cold as Valley Forge and with about three ponies of brandy under it. I like to see people drink.”

Marlowe: “Hmmm.”

Sternwood. “What does that mean?”

Marlowe: “It means, hmmm.”

Or, my favorite from Marlowe: “She tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up.”

Lines like that sell “The Big Sleep,” but so do the sexual innuendoes, most of which take place between Marlowe and the bevy of tart young women who relentlessly hit on him. Not one female character in this movie behaves as if they weren’t the product of some aroused man’s fevered imagination, his most lurid of dreams. They are constantly turned on and ready for sex, so brazenly on the make they give the movie a satisfying, electric snap.

The costume design follows suit, so to speak, accentuating harsh angular lines over soft rounded curves. The reason? If any character in this movie looked even the slightest bit soft, they’d be shot in the opening credits.

“The Big Sleep” isn’t a perfect film – it becomes too convoluted as it unfolds (Chandler himself admitted he couldn’t grasp his own ending). Still, there is so much happening onscreen, not the least of which is the legendary chemistry between Bogart and Bacall, that the movie becomes less about its muddled plot and more about just sitting back and enjoying the performances, listening to the dialogue, feeling the gumshoe grit as Marlowe gets in too thick, and getting wrapped up in the characters, all of whom have personalities that slash at the screen and leave their mark.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Along Came Polly ? D

Bad Santa ? B+

Barbershop 2: Back in Business ? B+

Big Fish ? B

The Butterfly Effect ? F

Calendar Girls ? B+

Cold Mountain ? B

Dirty Pretty Things ? A-

50 First Dates ? C+

Fog of War ? A

Ghosts Of The Abyss ? C+

The Haunted Mansion ? C

House of Sand and Fog ? B+

In America ? A-

The Last Samurai ? C

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ? A-

Lost in Translation ? A

The Magdalene Sisters ? A-

Miracle ? B+