Can anybody explain to me the plot of "The Big Sleep"?

I watched it last night for the first time in years...wow. It might be the ultimate surrealistic movie, with a strong resemblance to a particularly memorable dream...characters coming and going for no apparent reason, lots of action that seems significant but doesn't really mean anything, locations--like Geiger's house--that you can't escape from, no matter how much you may want to... OK-seriously...(seriously!)--was the chauffeur murdered? If so, by whom? Bogart/Marlowe at one point suggests--it's hardly more than that--that Joe Brody killed him, but not a shred of proof is offered. Who did kill him, if anyone did? And why was Brody killed by the kid at the doorway? Because the kid thought Brody killed Geiger? But we're supposed to think--again, without a shred of evidence--that the chauffeur killed Geiger--I think... Then there's the mysterious disappearing corpse--Marlowe finds Geiger's body at the house he--Geiger--rents from Eddie Mars. Later, the corpse has vanished. But yet later, he finds Geiger's body back *in* the house...who took it, and why? (I think that's how it happened...:-(...) And of course, there's the mystery of Shaun Regan. *Why* did he leave Sternwood's house? Because he ran off with Mrs mars? But when Marlowe and Vivian confront said Mrs Mars in the desert shack at Rialto, she *seems* to deny that there was anything between her and Regan...so: where *was* Regan? And why on earth--if he *wasn't* involved with Mrs Mars--did Eddie Mars have him killed? If indeed he did--there is of course no proof offered of Mars' guilt...and what was the Elijah Cook character doing in all of this, and why did Mars' hit-man eliminate him? Didn't quite follow that, either...help...excuse me while I throw myself off a cliff, and finish the story properly...

But I remember reading that during the filming there was one murder that even Howard Hawks couldn't figure out. The sent a letter to Chandler and even he didn't know who did it.

Found it on Wikipedia
The film is fondly remembered for its extremely convoluted plot. A famous story tells that, during filming, the director and screenwriters could not figure out who had killed chauffeur Owen Taylor or if he had committed suicide. They sent a cable to the author. Chandler later relates this story to a friend in a letter and he recalls "They sent me a wire... asking me, and dammit I didn't know either" .

Well, Chandler could easily had said that, but he was probably joking. In the book, the circumstances of the chauffeur's death is a pretty significant detail to the climax of the story. It seems pretty unlikely to me that he would have forgotten it.

...I've never tried to keep up with the plot - the characterizations and performances (and that racy dialogue - rowr!) are what do it for me.

Love that movie.

But I haven't seen it in a while and a lot of the details are fuzzy. I would agree that it is probably best not to think about it too much and just enjoy the movie for its general awesomeness.

Lebowski fans - the Coens are huge Chandler (and Hawks, for that matter) fans, and the much of the plot and character dynamics are an affectionate parody of 'The Big Sleep.' Very easy to spot if you are looking for them.

Star Wars fans - Leigh Brackett, who was not the brilliant-novelist-turned-Hollywood-lush part of the screenwriting team was one of the main screenwriters on 'The Empire Strikes Back.'

One of my favorite movies.