A quick attempt to capitalize on the success of Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Story follows a producer (Richard Conte) researching the decades-old murder of a silent-film director on the studio lot. He hopes to turn the crime into a movie, but poking around only rouses bitter ghosts and bad blood. The mystery is at once overwrought and underthought (a framing device with Jim Backus as the producer’s agent has unnecessary, Citizen Kane-like aspirations), but there are a few entertaining performances around the edges: Henry Hull as a forgotten screenwriter; Julie Adams as the daughter of a silent-movie star who gave up on Hollywood; and Richard Egan as a police lieutenant with alarmingly gritted teeth. Meanwhile, director William Castle—who specialized in quick, B-movie genre flicks like House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler—brings a macabre wit to the proceedings, from the pianola playing a jaunty tune as we learn the details of the murder to a climactic chase through a prop warehouse with eerie dummies hanging from the ceiling. Indeed, Castle and cinematographer Carl Guthrie manage some stunning imagery throughout, with deep blacks and glowing lights. This is the kind of movie where even the mortuary gets a seductive neon sign.
(7/19/2025)
