Goofs

When Marlowe enters the Sternwood home, bringing Carmen Sternwood home from Geiger's house, he is not wearing his trench coat. But, as he leaves, he is given the coat by Norris, the butler, and puts it on.

When Vivian unties Marlowe, she has no shoes. When she gets up, she has shoes.

The guns hidden in Marlowe's car: first he chooses the one on the left and later when he shoots Canino he picks the same gun, but the other is missing.

When Marlowe goes to Geiger's house, in the foreground is the house's mailbox with "AG Geiger 460" visible on it. When Marlowe later calls his pal Bernie at the D.A.'s office, he gives the address as "7244 Laverne Terrace".

During Marlowe's initial introduction to Vivian, she pours herself a glass of a clear-colored liquid from the bar, which turns into a dark liquid half-way through scene.

General Strenwood says his legs are paralyzed, though his legs are seen moving under the blanket at the beginning of the movie.

During a conversation with Vivian, the back of Marlowe's soaked shirt dries out too quickly.

When Marlowe lets the air out of his tire before he enters the car repair garage, the car lowers too suddenly.

When Vivian is telling Marlowe the cover story for Carmen for the night before, her mouth does not match what she's saying. This mismatch is because the movie was re-edited after Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall became a popular team; To Have and Have Not (1944) which brought them to stardom was released after The Big Sleep (1946) was filmed but before it was released. Scenes were re-shot, some new scenes were added and others dropped. The sequence was also changed to accommodate some of the new edits. The audio/visual mismatch is because the scene was kept but minor dialog had to be changed to make the re-sequencing track properly.

The identity of who killed the Sternwoods' chauffeur is never revealed.

After finding a corpse at the Geiger house, Marlowe gets his fingerprints on nearly everything.

When Philip dials the phone (twice), the first time he dials 5 numbers and the second time 6 numbers.

Marlowe raises his glass to toast the bookstore girl but hits hers as he does so.