Secret File: Hollywood

Coming at the fag end of the panic caused in Hollywood by the squalid revelations in the mid-50's by 'Confidential' magazine, the victim this time round is "one of Hollywood's most talented directors" a fellow named James Cameron (played by John Warburton).

The film boasts a Dr.Mabuse-like 'Mr.Big' who communicates with his operatives via tape-recordings, and brunette Francine York (looking barely a day younger in her film debut than she did in the 70's) and blonde Maralou Gray are a chic, foxy pair of chicks. But even though I soon ceased to care I figured out 'Mr.Big's identity long before the conclusion and the succession of drably lit, unimaginatively staged scenes of people talking had worn me down.

If director Rudolph Cusumano (using the pseudonym Ralph Cushman) had just moved his camera in a little closer to the action more often, the lively performance given by the camera boom would have been less detectable, but the film might have been duller still.