Pulling punches ...

... Raymond Chandler and the Blue Dahlia Gambit | Literary Kicks. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Chandler had originally plotted the killer as Buzz, who is played by William Bendix. Chandler fancied an ending where for psychological reasons Buzz murdered Ladd’s unfaithful wife in a blackout rage. Then, his memory of the incident was to be meticulously pieced together so that he would finally remember what happened and confess to the crime. However, the Navy disapproved of this ending, as it would show Navy personnel in a bad light (these were the War years, after all). So Chandler’s output came to a halt.