9 August, 2003
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler. (139 pp, TPB, 1939)
In the comments to this post, the illustrious Dr. Principles remarks on the notorious question, "Who killed the chauffeur in The Big Sleep?" I've seen problem bandied about here and there, but I didn't recall it being a very big mystery. At least, when I got to the end of the book, I didn't sit around wondering, "But who killed the chauffeur?" So, I decided to give the book a quick reread, to see if it really was as mysterious as people make it out to be.
The answer is that while it was not as clear as I'd recalled, and while what happened is never spelled out in the novel, it's a certainty that there are only two options, both of which are spelled out. The book's plot is not so much complicated as it is non-unified. It's obvious that this book was originally published as a serial; I bet I could make a good guess as to where the splits between installments were.
The rest of this post contains massive spoilers for The Big Sleep. If you haven't read the book, or at least seen the movie, please read no further.
For my own future reference (and as a public service) I've summarized all the deaths in The Big Sleep, with special attention to the chauffeur:
| Victim | Killer | Motive |
|---|---|---|
| Arthur Geiger | Owen Taylor (Sternwoods' chauffeur) | Jealousy over Geiger's pr0n shoot with the lovely Carmen Sternwood |
| Owen Taylor, aka the chauffeur | Self-inflicted or Joe Brody | See below |
| Joe Brody | Carol Lundgren (Geiger's live-in boyfriend) | Mistaken revenge (he thought Brody killed Geiger) |
| Harry Jones (grifter who offers to tell Marlowe where Eddie Mars' wife is hiding out) | Lash Canino (Mars' goon) | Jones knows too much |
| Lash Canino | Phillip Marlowe | Self-defense |
| Rusty Regan | Carmen Sternwood | Insanity + jealousy |
Okay, so about the chauffeur. If he was indeed murdered, there's only one person who could have done it-- Joe Brody. He was the only other person at the crime scene. He admits to have clunked Taylor on the head and stolen the photographic plate with Carmen's nudie picture, which Taylor had taken from the camera after killing Geiger:
"... Owen Taylor was sweet on Carmen, and he didn't like the kind of games Geiger was playing with her. He let himself in the back way with a jimmy and a gun and he caught Geiger taking a photo of Carmen without any clothes on. So his gun went off, as guns will, and Geiger fell down dead and Owen ran away, but not without the photo negative Geiger had just taken. So you ran after him and took the photo from him. How else would you have got hold of it?"
Brody licked his lips. "Yeah," he said. "But that don't make me knock him off. Sure, I heard the shots and saw this killer come slamming down the back steps into the Buick and off. I took out after him. He hit the bottom of the canyon and went west on Sunset. Beyond Beverly Hills he skidded off the road and had to stop and I came up and played copper. He had a gun but his nerve was bad and I sapped him down. So I went through his clothes and found out who he was and I lifted the plate-holder, just out of curiosity. I was wondering what it was all about and getting my neck wet when he came out of it all of a sudden and knocked me off the car. He was out of sight when I picked myself up. That's the last I saw of him"
One possibility is that Brody is lying, and that he hit Taylor a little too hard, and killed him, then drove out to the ocean and made it look like Taylor had taken a long drive off a short pier. Marlowe's opinion that Brody isn't a killer may not apply if the killing was accidental.
The other possibility is that Brody is telling the truth and that Taylor, upon noticing that he'd lost the photographic plate (and had thus failed to protect his lady's honor), gave up and killed himself by driving into the ocean. A variation on this theme is he did it by accident, and it was death by misadventure, rather than deliberate suicide. Both of these options, as well as murder, are discussed by the police when Taylor and his car are pulled out of the water.
Which of those two options is the correct answer is never addressed. The police rule Taylor's death a suicide, in order to avoid inconveniencing wealthy citizens. There isn't a formal inquest, so nobody gets to find out how or when he really died. Brody, the only possible murderer, get killed himself shortly after telling Marlowe that he mugged the chauffeur, so Marlowe can't investigate that any further.
So, there we have it. The chauffeur was either killed by Joe Brody, or he killed himself. In the end, he was never important enough for anybody give a damn about exactly what happened to him.