From Hollywood to Deadwood Reviews

A private-eye tale with some deadpan, tongue-in-cheek humor, FROM HOLLYWOOD TO DEADWOOD centers around a pair of gumshoes, Raymond Savage and Jack Haines (Scott Paulin and Jim Haynie), hired by a Hollywood film studio to track down a missing actress, Lana Dark (Barbara Shock). After a lengthy chase, they find her in the little town of Deadwood, South Dakota. Haines begins to fall for her, and uncovers a piece of dirty dealing, in which the studio actually suggested that she take off and may have ideas about getting rid of her permanently. A wry throwback to the Raymond Chandler mysteries of the 1940s and 50s, FROM HOLLYWOOD TO DEADWOOD has a certain brash style, and is technically accomplished for its budget of less than $1 million. Unfortunately, writer-director Rex Pickett (making his feature debut) lets the story drag in spots, and the perfunctory development of the relationship between Shock and Paulin's characters is one of several shaky stretches in the narrative. What does work in FROM HOLLYWOOD TO DEADWOOD is the unique rapport between Paulin and Haynie's characters, detectives who turn out to be a would-be novelist and a crass but sympathetic ex-actor.