CHANDLER ACTS

by Melodie Johnson Howe

I’ve seen the movie Double Indemnity starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray so many times I’ve lost count. But not once did I notice Raymond Chandler sitting on a bench, reading a book, in a hallway as MacMurray walks by him. It seems it took a Frenchman to make this discovery in 2009. Where have I been? Nobody told me about this until I read an article about Chandler’s upcoming July 23rd birthday in the Los Angeles Times last Sunday. I immediately searched out the video of the film clip. For those of you who also live in a bubble here it is.

Of course once I revved up the old search engine to check out one little thing, I found myself riveted by other pieces of information. Learning to multi-task, I did this while watching the women’s soccer (or is it football?) final between the Americans and the Japanese. By the way, why do we call our game football when it appears to me that only one player, aptly named the kicker, actually kicks the ball? But, I digress.

While searching out Chandler’s acting cameo I discovered this wonderful snippet from Riodin’s Desk (author Mark Goggins):

Chandler’s most important contribution to the movie, of course, was co-writing the screenplay with Billy Wilder, but writer/director Wilder evidently gave Chandler a chance to appear in the film, even though Chandler wrote a memo to studio big-wigs demanding that:

Mr. Wilder was at no time to swish under Mr. Chandler’s nose or point in his direction the thin, leather-handled Malacca cane which Mr. Wilder was in the habit of waving around while they worked. Mr. Wilder was not to give Mr. Chandler orders of an arbitrary or personal nature such as “Ray, will you open that window?’ or ‘Ray, will you shut that door, please?”

and Wilder said of Chandler:

He couldn’t structure a picture. He had enough trouble with books. But his dialogue. I put up with a lot of crap because of that. And after a couple of weeks with him and that foul pipe smoke, I managed to cough up a few good lines myself. We kept him on during the shooting, to discuss any dialogue changes.

Hollywood players and authors. What could be more biting and fun?

Then I came across Chandler being interviewed by Ian Fleming. Wow! Chandler moves and now Chandler talks! And with Ian Fleming. I was in 7th heaven and at that point the Americans were ahead by one goal. Alas the very British gentleman who introduces the two writers goes on a bit. The sound is terrible and Chandler appears to have tossed back a few too many. But what is interesting even with these two greats is they were discussing what we are still talking about. Endlessly, I might add. What’s a thriller? Mystery? And literary respect. It’s fascinating to hear them talk about other writers (Get a notepad you may want to jot down some of their names) and their own work. Especially Ian Fleming who is much more forthcoming. When Chandler tells Fleming that Marlowe was getting married in his new book, my heart sank. I wanted to yell at him, “Don’t do that. What are you thinking?” Hell, the Japanese scored a goal.

There is something sad in this interview; we want our authors to be brilliant, ebullient, and not lonely tired drunks. It takes the romance out of everything. As hardboiled as Marlowe was, he was also a romantic. Chandler sounds much too real, I thought, watching the American women lose in overtime.