Alternate versions

It was filmed in 1944 but not released until two years later. Some prints derive from a slightly different early preview version with alternate footage.

The pre-release (1945) version, released in 1997, was extensively re-cut to produce the 1946 version, eliminating all the scenes that included Pat Clark, who played Mona Mars in the original. She was replaced by Peggy Knudsen for the scene near the end in the house at the back of Art Huck's garage, because Ms. Clark wasn't available.

The earlier version includes a different (cleaner) version of the "racetrack" banter between Bogie and Becall, a different version of the scene where Bogie meets Eddie Mars' wife (with a different actress), and a plot-summarizing conversation between Bogie and the D.A. that, while a little hokey, certainly makes the film easier to follow for the first-time viewer. Overall, however, the later version is the better version.

Both the preview version and the theatrical release are available on DVD. The running times of each are similar but there are actually over 20m of differences between the two versions - the impact of the changes is to beef up the Bogart/Bacall romance angle and make it much sexier. The preview version comes across as much duller than the better-known theatrical release print which has been made a genuine classic by the re-shooting and re-editing. The major differences are:

• preview version has extra footage of Bogart searching Geiger's house where he has found Bacall's sister in a drugged state. This doesn't reveal any new information and was deleted for pacing reasons in the theatrical print.
• preview version has different footage when Bogart takes the drugged sister back to her mansion. Theatrical print removes some of this and replaces it with a new scene set in Bacall's bedroom in which she and Bogie exchange some great, racy dialogue. This new scene considerably alters the tone of the film.
• preview version has a scene in which Bacall visits Bogie's office wearing a veil and they talk a lot. Bacall's agent particularly objected to this veil. The theatrical print removes the scene entirely and replaces it with a new one with the couple set in a restaurant which has much sexier dialogue and innuendo (to do with racehorses among other things).
• the preview version has a long-ish dialogue scene in the DA's office which explains a lot of the plot details although it goes on too long and slows the film's pace. Scene has been removed entirely from the theatrical print.
• the theatrical print has an additional scene in which Bacall's psycho sister tries to seduce Bogie in his apartment. He rebuffs her. This scene was in the original novel and is important in explaining who really killed the chauffeur. In the preview print, the absence of this scene makes it unclear why Bogie knows that the sister is a psychopath at the finale.
• the scene in which Bogie is tied up with Bacall and Eddie Mars' wife was completely re-shot for the theatrical release with a different actress playing Mars' wife. The theatrical release edit emphasizes the Bacall/Bogie pairing more and has additional close-ups of Bacall.

Because of the differences in the scene where Bogart brings the drugged sister back to the mansion, a subsequent scene where Bacall appears at Bogart's office had some dialogue overdubbed to account for the fact that, in the new version, Bacall met Bogie at the door as he was returning her sister.