Who wrote the screenplay for the 1946 film noir The Blue Dahlia?

Raymond Chandler wrote the screenplay for the 1946 film noir The Blue Dahlia.

The film was Chandler’s first original screenplay, rather than an adaptation of one of his detective novels. Producer John Houseman brought Chandler’s work to Paramount after the studio sought a vehicle for star Alan Ladd, who faced possible military service during World War II.

Production began in March 1945 before Chandler had completed the script. The most difficult issue was the ending: an early version implicated a Navy serviceman as a murderer, which the Navy objected to. Chandler eventually revised the conclusion under intense studio pressure.

Cornell Woolrich, James M. Cain, and Dashiell Hammett are all major crime or noir writers, making them plausible distractors, but none wrote The Blue Dahlia. George Marshall directed the film, which also starred Veronica Lake and William Bendix.