Production
Halfway through the script, Chandler became unable to write. A former alcoholic, he'd become a teetotaler for health reasons. He decided that the only way he could get inspiration to finish the script was to get drunk. Chandler had originally agreed to write the screenplay for nothing 'as a favour' to John Houseman, the producer - but instead asked for a case of scotch as full payment. As a result and for several weeks, Chandler drank heavily, and at the end of that time, presented the finished script.
According to Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movies, it was originally intended for Buzz to be the murderer, but the U.S. military objected to the portrayal of a psychologically disturbed veteran as the killer. This was affirmed in John Houseman's memoirs, dramatized by the BBC in a play "Lost Fortnight" first broadcast in 2009.
Read more about this topic: The Blue Dahlia
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“The growing of food and the growing of children are both vital to the family’s survival.... Who would dare make the judgment that holding your youngest baby on your lap is less important than weeding a few more yards in the maize field? Yet this is the judgment our society makes constantly. Production of autos, canned soup, advertising copy is important. Housework—cleaning, feeding, and caring—is unimportant.”
—Debbie Taylor (20th century)
“The society based on production is only productive, not creative.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)