☆ ☆ ☆
Hollywood
Story (1951) – W. Castle
William Castle (producer and showman
extraordinaire; known for House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler and a lot of
B-quickies) made this not-bad noir mystery with reflexive overtones. Richard Conte plays a New York producer who
heads west to Hollywood and decides to make a movie about the unsolved murder
of an old silent movie director (only 20 years earlier – so, around 1998 to
1999 for us!). As soon as the word gets
out, old-timers emerge from the woodworks and suspicious events start to
happen. Conte is solid and Castle keeps
things moving briskly (the film is only 77 minutes long) so it feels a bit like
one of those TV murder mystery shows – palatable but insubstantial. In a nod (rip-off) to Sunset Blvd (1950), a
recent success, Conte encounters a number of actual silent film stars (mostly
unknown today but there is Joel McCrea!).
Julie Adams (love interest) and Richard Egan (cop) are good in
supporting roles. The three suspects at
least have distinct personalities although the mystery itself isn’t really
fleshed out. Apparently, the studio that
Conte takes over is really Chaplin’s old digs.
Have a look at Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon if you want to know
about the real unsolved murders of the silent days!
No comments:
Post a Comment