Righting a wrong

RE “ ‘Dahlia,’ a Postmortem” (Sept. 10): On behalf of writers everywhere, let me lodge this protest: Not once, in the two-page article, was the name of the screenwriter mentioned. The author of the source material, novelist James Ellroy, admitted he had no direct role in shaping the film, basically crediting director Brian De Palma for what appears on the screen. De Palma mentioned something about “the original draft” and concluded by saying, “I just made the best movie I could out of the book.” I think it would have been much more appropriate if he had said, “I made the best movie I could make out of Josh Friedman’s screenplay.” Or did the movie write itself?

JOEL RAPP

Los Angeles