The Blue Dahlia

The pressure of having to finish the screenplay combined with the curveball of having to write an entirely new ending was too much for Raymond Chandler. He quickly came down with a severe case of writer's block. According to a near-legendary story, Chandler offered to finish the screenplay by working drunk; in exchange for sacrificing his health to produce the requisite pages on time, Chandler was permitted to work at home (a privilege rarely granted to screenwriters) and was provided two chauffeured cars, one to convey the completed pages to the studio and the other for his wife. Chandler turned the script in on time. Many now believe the drunkenness was simply a ruse by Chandler to wrangle extraordinary privileges from the desperate studio.

Joyce tells Johnny that the tide is out. Clearly the tide is all the way in, completely covering the beach.

Featured in The Hollywood Collection: Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man (1999)