10 Movie Characters Who Look Nothing Like Their Source Material
2. Humphrey Bogart As Philip Marlowe - The Big Sleep
An adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel of the same name, 1946's The Big Sleep is one of the most acclaimed crime films of all time. Accordingly, it's ironic that Humphrey Bogart's appearance falls notably short of 'convincing' when it comes to an accurate representation of lead protagonist Philip Marlowe.
The hard-boiled private investigator is described in Chandler's novels as a tall man in his late-30s, weighing nearly 200 lbs. As such, the sight of the individual playing him - an actor who looked closer to 50 with a height barely scratching the ceiling of 5'8" - is disastrously inaccurate on paper.
If this wasn't Humphrey Bogart we were talking about, this could have gone down as one of the most catastrophic examples of miscasting in cinematic history. Fortunately, the inimitable performer effortlessly drags the audience's attention away from his questionable resemblance to Marlowe with a turn for the ages.
Bogart even manages a wink to the audience about how he doesn't fit Chandler's description. After Martha Vickers' Carmen Sternwood points out that Marlowe isn't very tall, the star of The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca deadpans:
"I try to be."