YOU have to give Jeremy Alter, a for mer location manager for David Lynch, props for his ambition: Alter’s directing debut, “The Perfect Sleep,” is a spoof of film noir with copious helpings of martial arts and Shakespeare.

The unnamed narrator (Anton Pardoe) returns to an unnamed big city, where he intends to rescue his childhood sweetheart (Roselyn Sanchez) from an underworld boss (Patrick Bauchau) and his minions.

The disjointed story is no more comprehensible than “The Big Sleep.” Though Alter is no Howard Hawks and Pardoe and Sanchez are no Bogie and Bacall, this movie looks great. You won’t nap through “The Perfect Sleep.”

Running time: 106 minutes. Rated R (violence, profanity, drugs). At the Quad, 13th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.