"Hollywood Story" from 1951 stars Richard Conte, Julia Adams, Richard Egan, Henry Hull, Jim Backus, Paul Cavanagh, with appearances by Francis X. Bushman, Betty Blythe, William Farnum, and Helen Gibson from the silent film era, as well as Joel McCrea.
Directed by William Castle, Conte plays Larry O'Brien, an independent producer who comes to Hollywood and becomes interested in the mysterious death of a silent film director, Franklin Ferrara, a murder victim. The case has never been solved. This is based on the real-life William Desmond Taylor murder.
O'Brien rents an old studio building and spends time in Ferrara's bungalow, where he was murdered. He starts talking to people, and it becomes apparent that someone doesn't want him to make the film. At one point, he is in the bungalow and someone takes a shot at him. O'Brien ducks the bullet, then goes outside and starts wandering around. Just what I would have done with someone trying to shoot me.
This was an okay mystery with wonderful location shots of LA and great atmosphere.
There was one huge mistake (to my mind, though it doesn't seem like anyone else noticed). Here goes:
************************************************************************************ SPOILER:
When the Conte character is shot at, he goes to the phone and immediately calls a police inspector, Bud Lenox (Egan), whom he met earlier. Egan isn't there, so he leaves a message with his phone number - GR 1466.
Later, an old-timer named Romero contacts O'Brien and says he knows the identity of the Ferrara murderer. He will not come to O'Brien's office, so O'Brien has to go to his place. When he gets there, Romero is dead, a piece of paper beside him. On it is the phone number GR 1466. This makes sense, since he contacted O'Brien, who was at that number.
However, O'Brien gives the piece of paper to Lenox and wants the identity of the caller. Turns out it was an old number Romero had that had been reassigned to someone not involved in the case. Lenox discovers that in 1929, the phone number belonged to O'Brien's money man, Sam Clark, who knew Ferrara.
Well, hello, it's the identical phone number to O'Brien's. It looks as if O'Brien set up an office in Ferrara's old bungalow. If he did, that's one thing. It's quite another if he's just hanging out in the bungalow because why is there even a phone there, the place hasn't been used since 1929. Not to mention, why does the phone have that number since it didn't belong to Ferrara in 1929, but to Clark.
Sloppy writing.
Directed by William Castle, Conte plays Larry O'Brien, an independent producer who comes to Hollywood and becomes interested in the mysterious death of a silent film director, Franklin Ferrara, a murder victim. The case has never been solved. This is based on the real-life William Desmond Taylor murder.
O'Brien rents an old studio building and spends time in Ferrara's bungalow, where he was murdered. He starts talking to people, and it becomes apparent that someone doesn't want him to make the film. At one point, he is in the bungalow and someone takes a shot at him. O'Brien ducks the bullet, then goes outside and starts wandering around. Just what I would have done with someone trying to shoot me.
This was an okay mystery with wonderful location shots of LA and great atmosphere.
There was one huge mistake (to my mind, though it doesn't seem like anyone else noticed). Here goes:
************************************************************************************ SPOILER:
When the Conte character is shot at, he goes to the phone and immediately calls a police inspector, Bud Lenox (Egan), whom he met earlier. Egan isn't there, so he leaves a message with his phone number - GR 1466.
Later, an old-timer named Romero contacts O'Brien and says he knows the identity of the Ferrara murderer. He will not come to O'Brien's office, so O'Brien has to go to his place. When he gets there, Romero is dead, a piece of paper beside him. On it is the phone number GR 1466. This makes sense, since he contacted O'Brien, who was at that number.
However, O'Brien gives the piece of paper to Lenox and wants the identity of the caller. Turns out it was an old number Romero had that had been reassigned to someone not involved in the case. Lenox discovers that in 1929, the phone number belonged to O'Brien's money man, Sam Clark, who knew Ferrara.
Well, hello, it's the identical phone number to O'Brien's. It looks as if O'Brien set up an office in Ferrara's old bungalow. If he did, that's one thing. It's quite another if he's just hanging out in the bungalow because why is there even a phone there, the place hasn't been used since 1929. Not to mention, why does the phone have that number since it didn't belong to Ferrara in 1929, but to Clark.
Sloppy writing.