DEAD FOR A DUCAT

An offer of a ú100,000 for only eight weeks of work in Kenneth Kilmaine's film Midnight Rider? It seems too good to be true—even if producer Kilmaine's the auteur of such epics as Dr. Dildo and the Busty Bimbos and director Wayne Schlesinger got kicked off his last film when he accused the crew of being space aliens—and of course it is. Not only will Philip Fletcher have to endure the hatred of screenwriter Harvey Goldman every time he fights to improve a mangled line, and the unbridled jealousy of Marvin J. Loudwater II, consort to brainless leading lady Shelley Lamour, but somebody's trying to kill him, too—some poor devil who obviously doesn't know that Philip, aided this time by a burglar with theatrical aspirations, is no slouch at homicide himself. Philip's fifth is lightsome and literate, but distressingly devoid of the real malice that gave The Villain of the Earth (1995) such an edge.