Re: RARA-AVIS: that damn chauffeur

From: ksm ( outpost@entirety.ca)
Date: 11 Mar 2002


the deceased chauffeur was owen taylor, "a slim dark-haired kid who had been good-looking not so long ago". i don't recall if he made it to the film version? with a plot as labyrinthine as "t.b.s." i've always thought it amazing that anyone could have turned it into a filmable script. i recall enjoying the original short stories he cannibalized (mostly "the curtain" and "killer in the rain") quite a bit too.

-kev smith

----- Original Message ----- From: Rene Ribic < rribic@optusnet.com.au> To: < rara-avis@icomm.ca> Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 4:17 PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: that damn chauffeur

>
> >
> > Actually, it's the chauffeur, whose name I forget, whose murder is
> > unexplained. And without spoiling anything (I couldn't do it anyway
> as I
> > don't remember anybody's name), it's fairly apparent who killed him.
> > Marlowe hypothesizes it and the perp's reaction seems to confirm it
> though
> > subsequent events get in the way of a confession or arrest. The issue
> gets
> > confused later when Marlowe tells a different story to the cops and
> DA;
> > however, Marlowe has deliberately changed the story in order to keep
> the
> > Sternwoods out of it. The issue gets further confused in the film,
> because
> > the scene where Marlowe discusses the case with the DA was cut.
> >
> > The anecdote about Chandler not remembering the killer's identity is
> funny,
> > but even if it's true it's told in the context of a screenwriter
> (maybe
> > Faulkner?) calling him up several years after he wrote the book. That
> > doesn't mean he didn't know what happened when he wrote it. I didn't
> know
> > that TBS was based on several shorts but if so that seems to make it
> more
> > rather than less likely that Chandler knew the killer's identity.
> It's one
> > thing to finesse what ends up being a minor plot point in the course
> of an
> > entire novel and another to write a mystery short without a solution.
> >
> > Carrie
> >
> >
> Another case of "When the facts contradict the legend, print the
> legend". In this case, I think the legend will stick in peoples' minds
> at the expense of the facts, as it has done for more than half a century
> already.
>
> Rene
>
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