>The Big Sleep isn't flawed? Even Chandler admitted he
had no idea who
> >killed the guy in the book store. That's what
happens when you cobble >a
>couple of unrelated short stories together to make a
novel.
>John Lau
Actually, it's the chauffeur, whose name I forget, whose
murder is unexplained. And without spoiling anything (I
couldn't do it anyway as I don't remember anybody's name),
it's fairly apparent who killed him. Marlowe hypothesizes it
and the perp's reaction seems to confirm it though subsequent
events get in the way of a confession or arrest. The issue
gets confused later when Marlowe tells a different story to
the cops and DA; however, Marlowe has deliberately changed
the story in order to keep the Sternwoods out of it. The
issue gets further confused in the film, because the scene
where Marlowe discusses the case with the DA was cut.
The anecdote about Chandler not remembering the killer's
identity is funny, but even if it's true it's told in the
context of a screenwriter (maybe Faulkner?) calling him up
several years after he wrote the book. That doesn't mean he
didn't know what happened when he wrote it. I didn't know
that TBS was based on several shorts but if so that seems to
make it more rather than less likely that Chandler knew the
killer's identity. It's one thing to finesse what ends up
being a minor plot point in the course of an entire novel and
another to write a mystery short without a solution.
Carrie
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