Customer Reviews

James Ellroy: American Dog

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Riffing on the topics covered in his brilliant "best selling, award winning" 1996 book My Dark Places, Ellroy takes us on a tour of his hometown both past and present in this short, entertaining film. Who would forsake the chance to hear the greatest novelist of our time riff on virtually everthing that matters in this world--namely, sex, death and Los Angeles? The filmmakers' nod to camp (dig the author lit Lugosi style, leaning languidly on a dangling dummy in an emptied LA mannequin factory) elicits morbid chuckles. Also, extras including Ellroy's conversations with Bruce Wagner at the Pacific Dining Car and the LAPD's touching presentation of the Jack Webb award are worth the price of admission.

I have to admit, I'm more a fan of James Ellroy's true life story than I am of his fiction.

Ellroy's memoir, My Dark Places, left me hungry for more from the writer who covers

the world of "peepers, perverts, pederasts, pedants, panty sniffers, punks and pimps."

James Ellroy, American Dog, delivers more. We ramble around LA, Ellroy's hometown, as

he delivers his take on true crime, the impact of his mother's murder on his life and psyche,

the Black Dahlia case and more. We prowl the streets of Hancock Park with Ellroy and we even

visit the county morgue with him. But viewer be advised: early in the film we are shown grisly

photos of the Elizabeth Short (Black Dahlia) crime scene -- that was a tough one to view.

In American Dog we also get to meet Bill Stoner, the LASD homicide detective who assisted Ellroy

in investigating his mother's murder. Alas, that case is beyond, cold -- it's frozen.

The "bonus" material includes Ellroy having dinner with friends on a couple of occasions at the Pacific

Dining Car restaurant. The tale he tells about visiting Nick Nolte at Nolte's home is hilarious.

The only problem I have with American Dog is that it is simply too short. The feature is barely an hour long.

I'm sure Clara and Robert Kuperberg had at least thirty more minutes of interesting tape they could have used.

If you don't already have My Dark Places in your home library, by all means buy it as a companion piece to

James Ellroy American Dog. It will be money well spent.