Alone and Frames by Loren D. Estleman

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=1952 ^ | William M. Briggs

[mattstat]

Estleman is best known for his hard-boiled Amos Walker detective series, all set in Detroit—of which, I heartily recommend the first, Motor City Blue. (Most of these were written when Detroit was still a city.) He also straps on the Yeehaw! and pumps out a lot of pretty good cowboy stories.

Now Estleman moves as far West as he can go with his Hollywood series starring Valentino. Val, to his pals, is a film archivist—he calls himself a movie detective—and professor at a well known Los Angeles-based university. His wise-cracking older next-door-office neighbor Broadhead, who by the grace of tenure hasn’t published in years, still wins the admiration of a student named after a soda pop. The cynical, eavesdropping department secretary is old enough to have dated the Three Stooges.

Valentino is a romantic, and in Frames—presumably via the University of California’s generous compensation package—buys a rundown and abandoned movie house, which he intends to restore.

Construction begins and…out pops a skeleton! A victim of murder from the old days. Which wouldn’t be that exciting, except the carcass of an old movie lies next to the bones.

It’s Greed, the silent classic by director Erich von Stroheim (the butler from Sunset Blvd.). I say “classic”, but I’ve never seen it, though Estleman makes me want to, he even makes me long to.

The real-life story is that von Stroheim produced a ten-hour film, but his bosses forced him to cut it to just over two, so that it wouldn’t cause audiences to fidget. It is said that a janitor came across the cuts, mistook them for trash, and tossed them on the fire. Sorrow!

Until Valentino discovers ...