Hitchcock Chronology: Raymond Chandler

Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology relating to Raymond Chandler...

1950

August

• Hitchcock begins regular script meetings for Strangers on a Train with Raymond Chandler at the novelist's house in La Jolla in early August. The meetings become increasingly awkward, party due to Chandler's alcoholism. When Chandler breaks into a drunk rant about the script, Hitchcock walks out telling his associate producer Barbara Keon that "he's through" and begins looking for a replacement writer.

October

• Hitchcock hires Czenzi Ormonde to write script for Strangers on a Train. At their first script meeting, Hitchcock pinched his nose, picked up Raymond Chandler's script for the film with his thumb and forefinger and then theatrically dropped it into the nearest waste paper basket. After spending a couple of weeks working with Ormonde, Barbara Keon takes over and the two women work non-stop to complete the script.