Director George Marshall was four weeks into shooting "The Blue Dahlia" when "the script girl pointed out that the camera was rapidly gaining on the script" to which "a faint chill of alarm invaded the studio." "We had shot sixty-two pages in four weeks;" explained producer John Houseman in an interview with Harper's magazine in 1965, "[Raymond] Chandler, during that time, had turned in only twenty-two-with another thirty to go." The script had come from a 120-paged novel Chandler had written and was stuck as to how to end it when Houseman sold it to Paramount. When he finally got an ending written, the Navy insisted they did not want one of their servicemen to be portrayed as a murderer.
Buzz Wanchek has a shell fragment lodged in his brain, which causes him chronic migraines and periodic bouts of amnesia. Certain types of music causes him to suffer from blackouts which is what happens when he unknowingly has a drink with his war buddy's wife. The wife is found dead and Wanchek doesn't remember anything when he wakes up.
Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" describes Bendix's portrayal as "brutely eccentric."
Links to Check Out
William Bendix in "The Blue Dahlia" - Joe Sommerlad - Medium
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