Did you know Raymond Chandler has a cameo of sorts in ‘Double Indemnity’? Well, he does and the above clip proves it. Much has been made over the years of Chandler and co-writer/director Billy Wilder’s antipathy toward each other, but I wonder. If they were as uncomfortable with each other as it often said, what’s he doing hanging around the set and sitting in for a little appearance? He and Billy must have been chummy enough for the famously autocratic director to have agreed to put him in the movie. Chandler is seen reading a book as Walter Neff–Fred MacMurray, natch–walks past him in the insurance office building. What book is it? We don’t know, but I like to think it’s ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, by James M. Cain (who also wrote the ‘Double Indemnity’ novel). Chandler might have been reading it in preparation for a pitch meeting at MGM, who owned the property and possibly were looking for a writer to adapt the book.