When the master of
suspense hired the legendary hard-boiled detective writer
It is 1950 and Alfred Hitchcock is suffering a mid-career
crisis. His latest films, Under Capricorn and Stage Fright
have flopped. In need of a hit he comes across a thriller from first time
novelist Patricia Highsmith entitled Strangers
on a Train.
Hitchcock secures the movie rights to the novel, paying
$7,500. Highsmith would later be annoyed when she discovers that Hitchcock had
bought the rights at a low price as a result of keeping his name out the negotiations.
In the book, tennis player Guy Haines meets a stranger on
train and, after sharing their problems, the two men agree to an exchange of murders.
This way their crimes would appear motiveless. It seems a perfect plan as each
will benefit from a murder for which they will have an alibi. Guy doesn't take
the agreement seriously until his wife winds up dead. He is warned that he must
fulfil his part of the deal or else…
Nervous of another failure, Hitchcock and Warne Bros. want
an acclaimed writer to pen the screenplay. Eight big names are approached,
including John Steinbeck,
but they all reject the opportunity. Hitchcock turns to the great American crime
writers and, after a deal with Dashiell Hammett falls through, he contacts Raymond Chandler. On reading the treatment,
Chandler describes it is a “silly little story" and “implausible” but he takes
the job anyway.
It seems like a perfect collaboration; a script from the
respected master of hardboiled crime fiction and a cinematic genius in the
director’s chair.
Chandler is a no-nonsense writer. He wants to crack on with
the script and works best alone. Hitchcock demands an input, making suggestions
and putting forward his ideas for a scene. It is a recipe for disaster. In no
time their relationship is in ruins. Chandler
tells Hitchcock, “If you can go it alone, why the hell do you need me?” He
describes their meetings as, "god-awful jabber sessions which seem to be
an inevitable although painful part of the picture business.” His main gripe is
the director’s willingness to forgo story and logic for dramatic effect.
On seeing Hitchcock arrive for a meeting, Chandler shouts, “Look at the fat bastard trying to get out of his
car!"
Overhearing the remark,
Hitchcock ceases talking to the writer. Chandler completes two drafts of the
screenplay, without hearing a word from Hitchcock, before being dismissed.
Czenzi Ormonde is hired to write the screenplay. A fair-haired
beauty with long shimmering hair, she resembles one of Hitchcock’s leading
ladies and has no formal screenwriting credit to her name. Meeting
her to discuss the script, Hitchcock makes a show of pinching his nose, then
holding up Chandler's draft with his thumb and forefinger before dropping it
into a wastebasket. Ormonde is informed that Chandler hasn't written a solitary
line he intends to use.
After reading the final
script, Chandler writes the following letter to Hitchcock:
Dear Hitch,
In spite of your wide and
generous disregard of my communications on the subject of the script of
Strangers on a Train and your failure to make any comment on it, and in spite
of not having heard a word from you since I began the writing of the actual
screenplay—for all of which I might say I bear no malice, since this sort of
procedure seems to be part of the standard Hollywood depravity—in spite of this
and in spite of this extremely cumbersome sentence, I feel that I should, just
for the record, pass you a few comments on what is termed the final script. I
could understand your finding fault with my script in this or that way,
thinking that such and such a scene was too long or such and such a mechanism was
too awkward. I could understand you changing you mind about the things you
specifically wanted, because some of such changes might have been imposed on
you from without. What I cannot understand is your permitting a script which
after all had some life and vitality to be reduced to such a flabby mass of
clichés, a group of faceless characters, and the kind of dialogue every screen
writer is taught not to write—the kind that says everything twice and leaves
nothing to be implied by the actor or the camera. Of course you must have had
your reasons but, to use a phrase once coined by Max Beerbohm, it would take a
"far less brilliant mind than mine" to guess what they were. Regardless of whether or not my name appears on the screen among the credits, I'm not afraid that anybody will think I wrote this stuff. They'll know damn well I didn't. I shouldn't have minded in the least if you had produced a better script—believe me. I shouldn't. But if you wanted something written in skim milk, why on earth did you bother to come to me in the first place? What a waste of money! What a waste of time! It's no answer to say that I was well paid. Nobody can be adequately paid for wasting his time.
(Signed, 'Raymond Chandler')
On the verge of releasing the film, Hitchcock and Chandler
agree that the novelist should be removed from the credits. However, still
wanting the prestige of the Chandler name, Warner Bros. list him as one of the
film’s writers.
Strangers on a Train is a success and marks Hitchcock’s
comeback. It endures as one of the director’s most popular movies.
Patricia Highsmith's career blossoms. She produces other psychological mystery novels that become
adapted for the screen including The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley's Game and Edith's Diary.
