Patrick Stewart stars as Raymond Chandler and Adrian Scarborough is
Billy Wilder in this entertaining glimpse inside the Hollywood film
industry. In 1944 the two men came together to work on a screen
adaptation of James M Cain's novel Double Indemnity. Billy Wilder is a
36 year old German Jewish émigré just making his name as a director and
Raymond Chandler is a reformed alcoholic with a developing reputation as
a novelist but absolutely no experience of writing for movies. The play
follows their famously difficult collaboration.
Billy
Wilder and Raymond Chandler are legendary. The English-educated,
middle-aged , would-be intellectual versus the ambitious young German
émigré. Paramount Studios put Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder together
because none of the big names would touch James M Cain's novel. With
its adulterous lovers, and a crime that could be copied, it was judged
too controversial to adapt because of the censorious Production Code
guidelines. Chandler and Wilder famously hated each other but in a space
of some four months locked in an office together they created an
outstanding screenplay for a ground-breaking classic film.
Raymond Chandler - Patrick Stewart
Billy Wilder - Adrian Scarborough
Directed by Claire Grove
No comments:
Post a Comment