THE DOOM LIST

As Will H. Hays, the movie industry’s first censor, descends on 1922 Hollywood, Tom Collins, private eye to the stars, lands a second case in the scandal-ridden town.

With Hays newly arrived and sniffing around for blood, hot Metro director Rex Ingram, about to head east for the New York premiere of The Prisoner of Zenda, wants to do everything he can to make sure that Barbara La Marr, the star of his latest movie, Black Orchids, is squeaky clean. The trouble is that she isn’t. Ben Deeley, an actor who claims to be married to the bombshell actress, is suing her for divorce, and when she replies that their marriage was never legal because she hadn’t divorced his predecessor, his attorney offers to add bigamy to the suit. The timing couldn’t be worse, because inside La Marr’s glamorous costumes is a baby bump that Phil Olsen, of the Los Angeles Herald, or somebody else outside the studio is bound to notice any day now. Nor is La Marr the only performer subject to extortion. Ramon Samaniegos, a Metro contract player whose turn in The Prisoner of Zenda seems likely to launch him into stardom, is being blackmailed over the disappearance of the waiter Gianni, who was much more than a friend to the rising star. Meanwhile, an unidentified corpse lies cooling in the morgue after baking for weeks or months in the California sun. Could it be Gianni’s?

Silent-film buffs won’t care that there’s not much doom and more loose ends than a shoelace factory.