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 production of obscurity in Paris compares to the production of motor cars in Detroit in the great period of American industry.”
—Ernest Gellner (b. 1925)
“... if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not do without that life.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)