THE MOVIOLA MAN
By
The moviola man is Clark-Gable-handsome Sam Wilder, expert but unambitious editor of TV films (the work's done on the mini-screened ""moviola""). He's got a promiscuous wife, a horrid pimply stepson who wants to be an actor, a loyal assistant, and--on the horizon as his wife drifts further and further away--a budding-star sweetheart with brains, beauty, and sensitivity. She's the leading lady in a prestige TV-film that Sam is asked to direct--every editor's dream--when the original director drops out. While Sam fights to prove his talent and preserve the script's integrity, his stepson is black-marketing old TV shows from the studio stockrooms--and kills Sam's loyal assistant when caught in the act. It doesn't take long for the police and Sam's private detective to close in on the punk; nor does it take long for Sam to realize that he'd rather be the best editor in the world than claw his ulcer-ridden way up as a director. So, as a result, this is a quick-reading, tolerably corny, unusually inoffensive show-biz tale--with lots of inside-Hollywood technical detail (TV-studio division, slanted toward the noble editors) and a clutch of implausibly, but refreshingly, sweet leading characters.