Hollywood Story (1951)

Directed by William Castle; produced by Leonard Goldstein

Larry O’Brien (Richard Conte), a successful film producer, moves his operations from New York to Los Angeles, where his old friend, Mitch Davis (Jim Backus), has suggested renovating an abandoned movie studio. Touring the lot, O’Brien’s imagination is fired by a story told by an aged security guard (Houseley Stevenson) about an infamous murder that took place in a bungalow on the property: in 1929, a renowned film director was shot dead, and his killer never caught. O’Brien determines to make a movie about the case. But the movie’s plot demands a resolution to the unsolved murder, and someone will stop at nothing to keep O’Brien’s movie unmade.

An entertaining mystery with an unusual angle, Hollywood Story incorporates a number of clever ideas, including the often intriguing riddle of an old, notorious murder. The killing is probably based on that of director William Desmond Taylor, who was shot to death in 1922; his killer was never arrested. The suspects included a number of well-known motion picture stars. Hollywood Story doesn’t try to get to the bottom of that crime, but uses it as inspiration.

This allows the inclusion of a number of former movie actors in cameos. Though there isn’t really a clear reason for their appearance - Are they to act in O’Brien’s  film? Are they technical advisers? - they provide verisimilitude. Their names - Helen Gibson, William Farnum and especially Francis X Bushman - would have been familiar to many in 1951. Yet it is thought-provoking that 1929, only twenty-two years before the release of Hollywood Story, seems more like an eon previously than a mere two decades. If a present-day film were to invoke names from 2002, there would hardly be the feeling of the distant past.

Yet the Silent Era must indeed have seemed distant to movie-makers and audiences of 1951, with sound an integral part of all movies and even colour becoming common-place. Francis X Bushman was an immensely popular actor in his time - ‘the handsomest man in Hollywood’ - who portrayed Messala in the first Ben-Hur (1925), yet he evidently faded fast from public memory. Joel McCrea has an uncredited cameo in Hollywood Story; he too is unknown to many, but probably known to many more than Bushman. Black and white westerns are undoubtedly viewed more often by film fans now than are silent epics.

Even without such entertaining ingredients, Hollywood Story is an enjoyable motion picture. Fictional characters from the past are included as well as the real, and it is they, as may be guessed, who contribute to the plot. In particular, Henry Hull provides a fine, fun performance as a dissolute screenwriter, who may or may not have been good at one time. Fred Clark projects his usual persona of anger and annoyance effectively; his confrontation with O’Brien over the alleged murder weapon is well-written. Former leading man (though not quite of the Silent Era) Paul Cavanagh has a good rôle as a potential suspect. His relatively small part is that of a former leading man reduced to taking small parts. And Conte himself is credible as a man easily obsessed, with enough power in the business to indulge his obsessions.

There are disadvantages. Julie Adams (billed as Julia Adams) is the obligatory love interest, but her character and O’Brien don’t seem overly attracted to one another. The narration by Backus’s character is pointless, and would have had more significance if given to Conte. And I can’t figure out why one character confesses to a second murder.

The actual story - the mystery - is pretty good, with clues found by the amateurs which might actually have been overlooked in the original police investigation, and the writing is believable. There is also cleverness and irony - perhaps written with tongue in cheek - in the climax, which provides a unique example of why movies sometime change real-life endings. William Castle performs a satisfactory job directing Hollywood Story, a few years before he turned to gimmicky and very low budget horror films.

Hollywood Story has a fairly standard ‘forgotten murder’ mystery that is given life and novelty by its setting and writing.