Imagine Slap Maxwell as a Hollywood screenwriter, circa 1939, and you get a fair notion of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby. He's been working in the business for 20 years--as he'll be the first to point out--and he "used to be a good man for structure," says a studio bigwig. But now he hardly works at all.
He survives on blather and luck instead of skill. He spends his energies thinking of ways to sneak on to the lot, or trying to come up with jokes for the Ritz Brothers at $5 per punchline, or leading gullible tourists on personalized tours of the stars' homes.
Writer and director Rob Thompson combined three of Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby stories into "Pat Hobby Teamed With Genius," the third and final installment of "Tales From the Hollywood Hills" (airing tonight on Channels 28 and 15 at 9 p.m. and on Channel 24 at 8 p.m.).
The seams between the stories show; this script could have used "a good man for structure." But the script's ambling, episodic quality is reflective of Hobby himself, and he's such an entertaining ne'er do well that most viewers will enjoy following him around for an hour.
