Raymond Chandler's Brief Acting Career
Wednesday Jul 15, 2009
Pulp fiction aficionados have uncovered a cameo by hardboiled novelist Raymond Chandler in "Double Indemnity"--the novelist is reading a book in a hallway, sixteen minutes into the classic film.
Chandler adapted James M. Cain's dark novel for the Billy Wilder-directed film. According to the Guardian, the writer and director clashed during the film-making process--it was the only time they would collaborate.
Here's the convoluted linkage to the discovery, from the article: "more than 60 years after its release, a French cinema historian and two US crime-writers almost simultaneously happened on the same bizarre discovery ... the American mystery writer Mark Coggins, tipped off by another writer, John Billheimer, posted the news on his website, Riordan's Desk, while the French journalist Olivier Eyquem, wrote about on his blog." (Via Maud Newton)