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THE SHOOTING SCRIPT by Laurence Klavan

THE SHOOTING SCRIPT

by Laurence Klavan

Pub Date: March 1st, 2005
ISBN: 0-345-46276-9
Publisher: Ballantine

Another madcap adventure for the self-described “trivial man,” a specialist in finding hopelessly lost films.

Who cares if Roy Milano’s archrival, Abner Cowley, is ascending to the lofty heights of la-la land by snaring a scriptwriting assignment for all 12 parts of the blockbuster fantasy The Seven Ordeals of Quelman while Roy’s carrying a sandwich board in Union Square to pay for his mother’s medical treatment? Having already dug up a copy of Orson Welles’s cut of The Magnificent Ambersons in his debut (The Cutting Room, 2004), Roy’s on the track of this year’s Holy Grail: Jerry Lewis’s unreleased Holocaust feature, The Day the Clown Died. Unfortunately, Ted Savitch, the crazy old man who dangles the rarity in front of Roy, dies just as Roy’s arriving to look at his treasure, sending Roy on a madcap chase after the stolen videotape. His quest will take him from Hollywood to Amsterdam and bring him into full-body contact with a cast and crew of zanies who cap Roy’s incessant memories of which star replaced which other star in which movie by acting out scenes from their favorite classic films, from Double Indemnity to Psycho. Much of what follows is very funny; all of it is manic, and none of it takes much account of what Alfred Hitchcock used to call the “plausibles.”

Think It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World of Movie Trivia and you’ll know right away whether you want to look further.