Hollywood Story ** (1951, Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Richard Egan, Henry Hull, Fred Clark, Jim Backus) – Classic Movie Review 11,392

Director William Castle’s enterprising 1951 black and white whodunnit crime thriller Hollywood Story stars Richard Conte, Julie Adams and Richard Egan.

Producer Larry O’Brien (Conte) buys an old movie studio unused since the days of silent movies and wants to make a film of an unsolved real-life murder of a famous director called Franklin Farrara, shot dead 20 years earlier in the office O’Brien has taken over. {This is actually the unsolved real-life murder of William Desmond Taylor in his studio bungalow in 1922, which ruined the careers of Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter.)

So O’Brien finds failed writer Vincent St Clair (Henry Hull) who worked with the dead man, and employs him to help to write the movie script, as well as getting the help of real-life silent stars Francis X Bushman, Betty Blythe, Helen Gibson, William Farnum and Elmo Lincoln (as themselves). Julie Adams plays Sally Rousseau and Richard Egan plays Police Lieutenant Bud Lennox.

The eerie Sunset Blvd-style premise is fine if exploitative, and the actors are very intriguing, giving resonant performances that propel the film. The problem is just the lacklustre script that does not do enough with the mystery, and anyone interested in Hollywood’s real-life scandals will be annoyed that it pointlessly plays fast and loose with the facts of a fascinating case, even reaching a fictional conclusion.

Joel McCrea guest stars as himself.

Also appearing are Fred Clark, Jim Backus, Paul Cavanagh, Houseley Stevenson, Katherine Meskill, and Louis Lettieri.

Story and screenplay by Frederick Kohner and Frederick Brady.

O’Brien and Sally screen footage of the silent classic The Phantom of the Opera (1925), supposedly directed by Franklin Ferrara, though it was actually directed by Rupert Julian.

The once famous silent screen stars received just $55 a day of shooting for their roles. Elmo Lincoln, the first screen Tarzan, was used as one of the non-speaking extras and received only $15 a day.

Castle shot many scenes at the old Charlie Chaplin studio to give the film the feel of old Hollywood.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,392

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