Who killed the chaffeur?

Marlowe asks the key question to Brody- "How did you get the picture?" He HAD to have taken it from the camera himself. He, Lundgren and Geiger were photographing the drugged Carmen. Taylor then had to have burst in and shot Geiger to "protect" Carmen. (Yet his splintering of the window frame was not heard? Let that one go.)
After Geiger is shot, and Taylor drives off in the Packard, the station wagon can be seen IMMEDIATELY behind it. Lundgren has to be in it. He follows Taylor (why is he going all the way to Lido Pier?) and does him in there. This was a crime of passion. Before Marlowe enters, Brody just has time to take the photo (but is not cool enough to take the real treasure, the book of clients) and quietly slips off.

Your final paragraph then make perfect sense if Mars knew nothing about the killing of Taylor (and Lundgren's mental state). Lundgren's decision to kill Brody was nothing to do with Eddie Mars- Lundgren did it to stop Brody talking about his (Lundgren's) involvement.

This is tighter I think.

Carmen killed Sean Regan.

However, this thread is asking about Owen Taylor, the Sternwood chauffeur whose body was in the car that the police recovered off the end of the pier. Carmen most certainly did not kill Owen. He was killed during the time that Marlowe was taking the stoned-out-of-her-mind Carmen out of Geiger's house and dropping her off back at home.

The butler, Norris, did it. With the candlestick. In the conservatory. He was obviously infatuated with Carmen, what with her running round the house in a short skirt and poppy socks. He'd bashed off so many alone in his bedroom, he thought he might as well bash off a few in reallife, as well. Admittedly, I can't prove it, but, then again, can you prove it never happened?

>>>>"Who killed the chauffeur?

Neither the movie nor the book tells. It's rumored that even author Raymond Chandler had no idea when that question was put to him by the screenwriters. Those who have seen the movie and/or read the book are split over it being (1) Brody, (2) Lundgren, or (3) that the chauffeur killed himself." <<<<

You know, I call BS on this tale that the screenwriters contacted Chandler who didn't know who killed the chauffeur. What's the mystery, because it's right there in the book - p. 118 "Owen Taylor, driver of the Lido Pier Suicide Car" is a headline Marlow reads in the paper. On p. 112 Marlow is talking to some cops and the DA he says "the Hollywood Division has two murders on it's hands, both solved.". Geiger is one murder, by Taylor, and Brody is the other, by Lundgren. Taylor the chauffeur is a suicide, the only evidence otherwise was the sap on the head, and Brody's story tells us how that happened and that Taylor was still alive after it happened.

Remember Owen Taylor burst into Geiger's house to protect Carmen, killed Geiger to protect Carmen, took the photo plate from the camera to protect Carmen, but DIDN'T TAKE CARMEN. From a room with a dead guy. The only assumption can be she didn't want to go, which makes his "protection" totally moot. When Joe Brody caught him, sapped him, and took the photograph the evening's disaster was complete, which is the reason Chandler provides for Taylor to drive himself off the pier in the car he was going to be accused of stealing. Hard not find that explanation if your looking for one.

What I can't believe is:

1. Why any observant reader of the book, like any Hollywood scriptwriter, can't come up with this explanation, and

2. Why Chandler would deny a solution - he was either very forgetful, drunk, or having a jolly. Chandler telling someone to read the book when asked about a plot point sounds like him. Chandler calling someone to admit his book had a plot hole doesn't.

But the whole tale itself just sounds to me like a producer who half-read the book talking to a studio head who hadn't read it at all - "What's the plot, Harry?" (producer in CYA mode) 'Too complicated for me. I even asked Chandler, and he didn't know!". Another explanation is that Owen Taylor's suicide to escape criminal justice would have been a film code violation, so some PR guy is covering for the plot hole the movie has by blaming it on the book.

Anyone know the source of this story of contacting Chandler? Seems fishy to me. Was this tale told while he was alive?.

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The novel itself is ambiguous.

I just watched the movie...on Christmas Day 2016...and its obviously Joe Brody...he hit him and stole the negatives....that much we know.....so obviously he got rid of the body, its a no brainer