The whole of the Books section of The Sunday Telegraph today was devoted to "Top 50 Crime Writers". Stuart McGurk, writing about film adaptations of famous books wrote: "Chandler will be equally remembered for his screenplays both original (Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity") and adapted ("Strangers on a Train" for Hitchcock).
Well, "Double Indemnity" was not an original work of Raymond Chandler's; it was a novel written by James M. Cain.
The interesting thing to me is 1. a good deal of the film's dialogue which seems pure Chandler is actually taken directly from the novel and 2. the end is different, and here I have to say that Chandler's and Wilder's ending is better - something like "Keynes, we worked across the desk from each other, we were that close." Keynes: "We were closer than that." Walter: "I love you too."
Famous death scene.
You cannot believe that so perfect a film was made by two guys who hated each other. Chandler, for one thing, did not a man like Wilder who wore his hat in the office. Wilder had no good word to say about Chandler.
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