In an interview included in Backstory 2, Brackett recalled
the construction of the big sleep screenplay:
"I went to the studio the first day absolutely appalled. I
had been writing pulp stories for about three years, and here
is William Faulkner, who was one of the great literary lights
of the day, and how was I going to work with him? What have I
got to offer? This was quickly resolved, because when I
walked into the office, Faulkner came out of his office with
the book The Big Sleep and he put it down and said: 'I have
worked out what we're going to do. We will do it in alternate
sections. I will do these chapters and you will do those
chapters.' And that was the way it was done. He went back
into his office and I didn't see him again, so the
collaboration was quite simple. I never saw what he did and
he never saw what I did. We just turned our stuff into
Hawks."
At 09:30 AM 1/4/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>I thought William Faulkner wrote the screenplay for
BIG SLEEP. Brackett
>isn't credited on imdb.com -- did she do a ghost job
or something?
>
>> Leigh Brackett, who was on my list, is female.
But that was easy to
>> miss. Howard Hawks was fooled. After reading her
classic HB novel NO
>> GOOD FROM A CORPSE, he decided "this guy" would
be perfect to write the
>> screenplay for his film version of Chandler's
THE BIG SLEEP. When she
>> showed up in his office, he realized his
mistake, but he hired her
>> anyway, and he liked her work so much she ended
up writing five more
>> movies for him.
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