Tuesday's Forgotten Movies: Mysteries & Scandals: Raymond Chandler

This blog isn't really about a movie per se. But it's close enough for me to include it. Back a few years ago, I used to watch E!'s Mysteries & Scandals TV series (1998-2000) hosted by A.J. Benza ("Fame, ain't it a bitch."). Wikipedia says Benza's other claim to fame was to punch out somebody on The Howard Stern Show. At any rate, when I found an episode that had been done on Raymond Chandler, I decided to check it out while I did my daily session on the Health Rider. My hope was I'd be interested enough to forget about the boring exercise I was doing. Well, it almost worked. The program's format lasts for about 21 minutes (30 minutes if you include the commercial ads). I'd been meaning to read a Chandler biography, so I had an added incentive to watch. Benza takes us down the mean streets of Chandler's celebrated L.A., his writer successes, his marriage to Cissy, and his last forlorn drunken years lived out in La Jolla, a fancy suburb just north of San Diego (I've been to La Jolla). I already knew most of this information. Robert J. Parker who completed Chandler's unfinished ms. Poodle Springs is interviewed for a few minutes which is interesting stuff. I think Parker said Chandler just wrote the first 4 chapters. If you have a few minutes, you might want to check out this episode of Benza's series.