Hollywood is famous for its scandals and mysteries. One of the earliest involved pioneering filmmaker Thomas H. Ince, who died two days after celebrating his 42nd birthday aboard newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst's yacht, the Oneida. Among those on board the fateful boat trip in 1924 were Hearst, his mistress Marion Davies and Charlie Chaplin. The official cause of death was heart failure as a result of indigestion. The unofficial one, which has gained more credence over the intervening years, and is dramatised in The Cat's Meow, director Peter Bogdanovich's first film in eight years, is that Hearst accidentally shot Ince while in a jealous rage, mistaking him for Chaplin who he suspected of having an affair with Davies.
The Cat's Meow is adapted by Steven Peros from his own play, based on the differing accounts of events aboard the Oneida, events the powerful Hearst was able to exert his spin on until long after his death, and which Bogdanovich has now shaped into an enjoyable, if not wholly convincing drama that resembles more an Agatha Christie thriller than a real life exposé.
The scene is set in voiceover by one of the guests, the writer Elinor Glyn, portrayed with perfect drollness by Joanna Lumley, who offers the acerbic invitation, "Welcome to Hollywood, a land just off the planet earth." From there we are thrust into the full blown decadence of the roaring twenties, as the boat teems with philandering movie moguls, their mistresses, cackling flappers and a collective passion for the Charleston. Dominating proceedings are the hosts, the patriarchal W.R. Hearst (Edward Hermann) and vivacious Davies (Kirsten Dunst). Amidst rumours of the actresses' affair with Chaplin (Eddie Izzard) and with a boat full of prying eyes, including those belonging to famed gossip columnist Louella Parsons (Jennifer Tilley), Davies vainly tries to discourage Chaplin's attentions, but the dogged womaniser wears her down with the promise of the youthful passion she's deprived of in her relationship with the elderly Hearst.
While Davies is busy with Chaplin, Ince bemoans his ailing fortunes ("I feel like it's all slipping away") and tries to resurrect his career by brokering a deal with Hearst to merge his film company with Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures. Initially reluctant, Hearst becomes more receptive when Ince promises to keep a close eye on his deceitful mistress. It's an intervention that supposedly cost him his life.
Something about dressing in twenties costumes encourages over acting. Tilley is the most guilty as the conniving Parsons, but Izzard too wilfully hams it up at times, never straying too far from his own persona and failing to capture the depth displayed by Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the troubled Chaplin. As a speculative account of what happened aboard the Oneida, The Cat's Meow offers some fascinating food for thought, but ultimately its frivolous approach leaves you hungry.
