The producer Hal B.Wallis had originally intended on having the lead role played by Irene Dunne, and then Norma Shearer or Ginger Rogers.He took them back to his isolated farm home to meet his single mother - needy, lonesome ("empty inside") and love-starved (Cara Williams), and abandoned eight months earlier by her husband.[Bogart played the part of Marlowe only once.] The Los Angeles gumshoe is here to consult with wealthy, aging and dying, dessicated, wheelchair-bound "General" Sternwood (Charles Waldron), a rich widower:My name""s Marlowe.Marsh: What do you mean, today?Jones: All right, tomorrow too.Barry: Say, with your reputation.Marsh: Did you ever try to cash a reputation in a bank? I""m in this for one reason only - money.Barry: Money? You? Say, with all the hits you""ve had, you ought to be worth plenty.Marsh: Yeah, I ought to be, but I""m not.Did you ever hear of Wall Street?On the phone, in a call from Marsh""s doctor, the tired, cigarette chain-smoking director is told that he is very ill, but he haggard Marsh wants to risk working on the show anyway:Good Lord man, you""re not a machine.She sobs that her father resists and reproaches her grown-up maturity.He causes her pain when he labels her a "dirty tramp" - after she has applied red lipstick and dressed up for him.