Hollywood is a town that is constantly evolving, moving at such a pace that there is seldom an opportunity to remember its illustrious past. However, once in a while Hollywood does indeed get the warm and fuzzies for times gone by. Once such period was the mid 1970's when a lot of the big studios were celebrating their golden anniversaries and some pictures were made that paid homage to a bygone era such as Mel Brooks' Silent Movie and Won Ton Ton, the dog who saved Hollywood. Another period was the early 1950's with the release of Sunset Boulevard and the rebirth of the wonderful Gloria Swanson. Coming off the back of that Oscar winner, came this crafty noir whodunit. Only this one was never going to win Oscars.
This movie when released, was likely a second feature on a bill with a bigger budget production and is a b movie with a capital B, clocking in at just over 76 minutes.
Richard Conte plays Larry O'Brien a movie producer based in New York whose agent Mitch, (Jim Backus), has lured him to Hollywood to make pictures there. Mitch has secured an old studio lot that hasn't been used since the old silent movie days. The studio was also the scene of an unsolved murder of a long forgotten director 22 years before.
The story of the old unsolved murder intrigues O'Brien, who has the idea to make a movie about the case, but as the case remains cold and unsolved, he hasn't got an ending to the film so he starts investigating the case himself. Mitch thinks it's a terrible idea as the story has long since been forgotten and it's all water under the bridge.
However, when he is shot at and other people start dying it becomes clear to O'Brien as to how little water has passed under that proverbial bridge and that the veteran killer is still out there determined to stop the facts from coming to light at any cost.
As a Silent movie myself, with a soft spot for Hollywood of the 1920's, I found this to be a refreshing break from the noir thrillers, that were sometimes unnecessarily dark and almost always set in the seedy underworld of New York City.
Although it is stated that the 1922 unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor was the inspiration for the story, there are few facts with that real cold case that coincide with this fictional plot.
Annoyingly, like all whodunit's you can only ever really watch this movie once to get the full enjoyment of the reveal at the end, but it was great to see real life silent stars return to the screen, albeit for small one scene walk on parts such as Francis X Bushman, Betty Blyth, Helen Gibson and William Farnum.
One glaring inaccuracy was the declaration that the murdered director had directed the wonderful Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney, (which of course he didn't). I had to grit my teeth through that one, but remembered that I was watching a fictional film set in a fictional studio about a fictional director....which makes me really sad obviously.
Great little movie and a good and rare chance to see Richard Conte play the good guy for a change.
Enjoy!
This movie when released, was likely a second feature on a bill with a bigger budget production and is a b movie with a capital B, clocking in at just over 76 minutes.
Richard Conte plays Larry O'Brien a movie producer based in New York whose agent Mitch, (Jim Backus), has lured him to Hollywood to make pictures there. Mitch has secured an old studio lot that hasn't been used since the old silent movie days. The studio was also the scene of an unsolved murder of a long forgotten director 22 years before.
The story of the old unsolved murder intrigues O'Brien, who has the idea to make a movie about the case, but as the case remains cold and unsolved, he hasn't got an ending to the film so he starts investigating the case himself. Mitch thinks it's a terrible idea as the story has long since been forgotten and it's all water under the bridge.
However, when he is shot at and other people start dying it becomes clear to O'Brien as to how little water has passed under that proverbial bridge and that the veteran killer is still out there determined to stop the facts from coming to light at any cost.
As a Silent movie myself, with a soft spot for Hollywood of the 1920's, I found this to be a refreshing break from the noir thrillers, that were sometimes unnecessarily dark and almost always set in the seedy underworld of New York City.
Although it is stated that the 1922 unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor was the inspiration for the story, there are few facts with that real cold case that coincide with this fictional plot.
Annoyingly, like all whodunit's you can only ever really watch this movie once to get the full enjoyment of the reveal at the end, but it was great to see real life silent stars return to the screen, albeit for small one scene walk on parts such as Francis X Bushman, Betty Blyth, Helen Gibson and William Farnum.
One glaring inaccuracy was the declaration that the murdered director had directed the wonderful Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney, (which of course he didn't). I had to grit my teeth through that one, but remembered that I was watching a fictional film set in a fictional studio about a fictional director....which makes me really sad obviously.
Great little movie and a good and rare chance to see Richard Conte play the good guy for a change.
Enjoy!