Hollywoodland

[justins5256]

I saw this film for the first time last night. I'm curious to know if any other posters here have seen it. If so, what were your thoughts?

[rerungirl]

I was really looking forward to this movie but found it to be a big disapppointment. The story itself is just fascinating...with at least three very plausible explanations for the death of George Reeves (murder, suicide, accidentally shooting). The movie had plenty of true-life material to draw on, but instead added the fictional Adrien Brody character and give him a couple of storylines that really took away from the main plot. Ben Affleck was okay as Reeves but that's about as far as I'll go. I wish they would have chosen another actor (preferably someone less well known) who looked and sounded more like Reeves. I realize the point of the movie wasn't to solve this mystery, but the film wasn't nearly as compelling as it could have been. I've read a couple of articles that say this could be an Oscar contender, but I don't see that at all...unless they're for costumes and cinematography.

[justins5256]

Actually, Adrian Brody's character was not fictitious. The character was based on a real private investigator named Milo Speriglio. Speriglio was a rookie investigator working for the famous Nick Harris Detective Agency in California. He was hired by Reeves' mother to find out the truth about her son's death. Speriglio came away convinced that Reeves did not commit suicide. From everything I've read about Speriglio, it seems he was a publicity hound. He also found a "conspiracy" to kill Marilyn Monroe and went on to write three books on the subject. He pointed a finger at the Kennedy brothers as the culprits. On the contrary, another investigator hired to examine Reeves' death claimed he could find no evidence to contradict the official finding of suicide. Speriglio died about six years ago, and the family requested his name not be used in the film.

[LooksLikeCRicci]

Originally Posted by justins5256

Speriglio came away convinced that Reeves did not commit suicide. From everything I've read about Speriglio, it seems he was a publicity hound. He also found a "conspiracy" to kill Marilyn Monroe and went on to write three books on the subject. He pointed a finger at the Kennedy brothers as the culprits.

Oh, come on! You KNOW there was a conspiracy to kill Marilyn Monroe!!!

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by LooksLikeCRicci

Oh, come on! You KNOW there was a conspiracy to kill Marilyn Monroe!!!

I wouldn't rule it out.

The most interesting story I ever heard about the Marilyn Monroe case concerned a Mafia-connected wiretapper named Bernard Spinder. In the late sixties, LA police raided Spinder's home and confiscated his bugging equipment. Interestingly enough, Spinder had the foresight to tape record the entire raid unbeknownst to the police. Those tapes still exist. At one point in Spinder's tapes, some officers are going through his "collection" and come across tape recordings purported to be of the murder of Marilyn Monroe. Spinder's tape collection was confiscated by the police and never returned. Spinder himself was convicted of wire tapping and sent to prison. He died before his release. His story was corroborated some twenty years later when a repairman fixing a leak in the roof of Monroe's old house discovered many unusual wires that were later found out to be direct room bugs and wire taps for all the phones in the home. Someone had their eye (more like their ear) on Marilyn, that's for sure.

EDIT: His name was actually Bernard Spindel, not Spinder.

[skunk ape]

I saw this on DVD recently and thought it was a damn fine piece of cinema and I liked how it pursued all of the avenues of what may have happened, then went to the most plausible scenario, that he committed suicide. The acting is great, especially Diane Lane (where was her Oscar nomination for that role?), Adrien Brody, and Ben Affleck (surpringly).