Influence of Hollywood, more palatable and less grim. Apocryphal story that Chandler himself did not know who killed the chauffeur. Reject the Christie clockwork plot. When I get stuck for a plot development, I just have some guy come through the door with a gun. Submerging of issues relating to pornography, homosexuality, drugs and female sexuality creates much of the mystique and confusing reputation of the film.
Violence is OK if done by villain or to villain which dilutes the noir aspects.
Bacall s character was softened to become a Hollywood heroine rather than a femme fatale. Both detectives and criminals were in different ways in rebellion against established society, a fact emphasised by their lower-class origins. The detective s apparent failure is a mask for his rebellion, his reject of the material values of society, while on the other hand the criminal hero delights in a display of wealth and possessions but remains aggressively lower class in his attitudes and manners. These qualities had a great appeal for people unemployed or ruined by the depression. For them society had become repressive and corrupt.