Mullholland Falls (1996) - Peter Dexter - Henry Bean

January 8, 1995

MULLHOLLAND FALLS

Screenplay by Peter Dexter, Revised by Henry Bean

Synopsis by Brian Aldrich

In 1953, Las Vegas, slutty beauty ALLISON POND suns with her gay bestfriend JIMMY FIELDS, a photographer. She leaves him to go off with her sugardaddy, GENERAL THOMAS TIMMS, head of the Atomic Energy Commission, to watch a bomb test in the desert. A few days later her corpse shows up in Los Angeles. Every bone in her body is broken. Furthermore, the CORONER says she was dying of cancer. Independent minded LAPD homicide detectives MAXWELL HOOVER, EDDIE HALL, ELLERY COOLIDGE, and Indian ARTHUR REDBONE are a task force onto themselves. They keep the gangsters out of L.A., tossing them over a Mullholland cliff side ("Mullholland Falls") if they refuse to leave town. They investigate Allison's murder.

A while ago, Hoover had an affair with Allison, but broke it off with her to save his marriage to his wife KATHERINE. She called him a few days ago, but he didn't respond. Now he feels responsible for her death. Hoover receives by mail from Fields a roll of film recording Allison's trip out to the desert with Timms and their sex afterwards. They find out that Fields was filming Allison's sex life and her partners including Timms and Hoover. They give Fields protection, but Timms goon, COLONEL FITZGERALD kills Fields. Hoover and Coolidge fly to Washington to question Timms who threatens Hoover to drop the case. When they return to L.A., they are ordered off of the case by CHIEF PARKER on orders from FBI agent McCAFFERTY. Then, the FBI ransacks Hoover's house, terrorizing Katherine, looking for the film of Timms and Allison. Hoover and his boys grab McCafferty and throw him off of Mullholland Falls. Then, they sneak onto the atomic testing ground in Nevada. Katherine is sent a film of Hoover with Allison. She confronts him.

Hoover demands to meet with Timms and is flown back to Nevada to meet Timms. He secretly plans to kill him, but finds him in a hospital bed dying of cancer. Hoover learns the atomic scientists performed experiments on people who are now dying of cancer as a result of the experiments. Timms didn't order Allison killed. Fitzgerald freaked out and killed her when he learned she knew of the experiments in the desert. Flying back to L.A., Fitzgerald tries to kill Hoover, but Coolidge is able to throw Fitzgerald and his goons out of the plane. Hoover lands the plane. Coolidge dies of his wounds. Hoover and Katherine reconcile.

Summary Criticism: The characters and settings are intriguing, but the plot is familiar and the outcome predictable.

Mullholland Falls - imdb

Mullholland Falls - wiki