He worked on the script with Raymond Chandler. 'He was a marvellous book writer, but he was strange, abrasive and unpredictable. He absolutely hated me because I knew more about the medium. I also was a lot younger, I knew many pretty girls, and I could drink without it ever getting in control of me. He had stopped drinking, but he hadn't got over it.
'One day he quit over a Venetian blind. He said "Wilder," in his rude way, "pull that shade down", without saying please.
'After three weeks, no Chandler, so Sistrom [producer] got in touch with Chandler, who says "I don't want to work with that son of a bitch any more. Wilder pulls up the Venetian blinds without asking. Broads are calling him, he uses three minutes here, six minutes there. He's not serious about writing. He has two drinks before lunchtime. He's scribbling notes all the time"...Chandler was a man full of talent, but we were not made for each other.'
(Wilder interviewed by Charlotte Chandler for 'Nobody's Perfect'.)
Based on James M Cain novel. It was actually Billy's third Oscar nomination (Ninotchka in 1940, Hold Back the Dawn and Ball of Fire in 1942)... so Chandler should have cut him some slack (and fourth - he was nominated for Best Director as well).
No comments:
Post a Comment