Susan Granger’s review of “THE CAT’S MEOW” (Lion’s Gate Films)
When I was growing up in Hollywood, adults used to whisper about how, years before, powerful publisher William Randolph Hearst “got away with murder” and why gossip columnist Louella Parsons had a lifetime contract with Hearst newspapers. Peter Bogdanovich explores that legend in screenwriter Steve Peros’s speculative account of a fateful weekend cruise on Hearst’s opulent yacht, The Oneida, in November, 1924. Like “Gosford Park,” it’s a murder mystery with a glittering passenger list, including the portly, powerful, paranoid Hearst (Edward Herrmann), ever suspicious of narcissistic actor Charlie Chaplin (British comedian Eddie Izzard), who was trying to seduce Hearst’s spirited, spunky mistress, actress Marion Davies (Kirsten Dunst). There’s ambitious, babbling Lolly Parsons (Jennifer Tilly), witty novelist Elinor Glyn (Joanna Lumley), “Western” director Thomas Ince (Cary Elwes) and his mistress (Claudia Harrison), plus starlets, jazz musicians and others, drinking illegal booze and dancing the Charleston. Astute casting is key, as is Bruno Delbonnel’s cinematography and Jean-Vincent Puzos’ period production design. This low-key, restrained, historical drama also adds to the legend of director Peter Bogdanovich, who was once considered one of the industry’s most talented with “The Last Picture Show,” “Paper Moon,” and “What’s Up Doc?” After that, he recklessly squandered his clout promoting Cybill Shepherd’s career and making a martyr out of murdered Playmate Dorothy Stratten, whose younger sister he married. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Cat’s Meow” is a suave, stylish, sinister 7. To a movie-buffs, it’s lurid intrigue that rivals Rosebud of “Citizen Kane.” And for more sleazy Tinseltown lore, dig up a copy of Kenneth Anger’s “Hollywood Babylon.”
