The Cat's Meow (2001)

THE CAT'S MEOW  (2001)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Peter Bogdanovich
    Edward Herrmann, Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard,
    Cary Elwes, Joanna Lumley, Jennifer Tilly
Elegant murder mystery/melodrama about what might've happened to movie producer Thomas Ince on a cruise aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht off Southern California in 1924. Orson Welles devotee Peter Bogdanovich gets to make his own Hearst movie and indulge his fetish for old Hollywood at the same time. There's not much mystery to the mystery, but it's got a smart, witty script and some finely polished performances, especially by Herrmann as Hearst and Kirsten Dunst as Marion Davies. What Bogdanovich captures (that Welles conspicuously missed in "Citizen Kane") is the genuine and enduring affection between Davies and Hearst, which makes Hearst's ego-addled jealousy over Marion's dalliance with Charlie Chaplin both pathetic and frightening. As to what really happened on Hearst's yacht that weekend long ago, that's the enduring mystery.