Episode 6 - Since I Don't Have You - Much like Raymond Chandler stitched together The Big Sleep out of previously published Black Mask stories "Killer in the Rain" (published in 1935) and "The Curtain" (published in 1936). Since I Don't Have You was based on James Ellroy's short story, "Since I Don't Have You" (1988) and some of the charaters and a tweeked part of the plot shows up later in "L.A. Confidential" (1990) on which the film of the same name was based seven years later.
Directed by Jonathan Kaplan, written by James Ellroy (story), and Steven Katz (teleplay). The cinematography was by Declan Quinn (
The Kill-Off (1989),
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)), and the music was by Peter Bernstein.
The episode stars James Woods (
Hickey & Boggs (1972),
Once Upon A Time In America (1984) as Mickey Cohen, Gary Busey (
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974),
Lost Highway (1997)) as Buzz Meeks, Bob Minor as Leotis, Tim Matheson as Howard Hughes, and Aimee Graham as Gretchen Rae Shoftel.
 |
| Buzz Meeks (Gary Busey) |
 |
| Howard Hughes (Tim Matheson) |
 |
| Micket Cohen (James Woods) |
Buzz Meeks is an ex LAPD cop who works as the security head for Howard Hughes' aircraft plant, he also triples as a strike breaker and and full time pimp. He filters out aspiring starlets with big knockers for Hughes and the sets them up in various "fuck" pads around L.A.
 |
| Gretchen Rae (Aimee Graham) |
 |
| Leotis (Bob Minor) |
The story is that both Howard Hughes, and gangster Mickey Cohen hire Buzz Meeks to find Gretchen Rae Shoftel a blond bombshell with the big bazooms who ducked out on both men. Hughes is fixated on her assets, Cohen on banging her. Both men offer to pay Meeks a thousand dollars to find her before a big Hollywood shindig put on by monster movie producer Sid Weinberg (Ken Lerner). Meeks needs two thousand dollars to pay off his bookie Leotis.
It just so happens that Gretchen Rae is on the run from the Chicago mob because she skipped out with the books from a whorehouse that specialized in hookers who looked like Hollywood movie stars. This plot device was reused in
L.A. Confidential where the whorehouse was run by Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn) and he had the hookers cut to look like movie stars.
Of course it all goes Noirsville but Meeks finds a way out.
Noirsville
The episode is missing the hilarious details of Mickey Cohen Jr. from the short story, Jr. is a bulldog belonging to Cohen with a huge shlong that the gangster tie a roller skate to so that it doesn't drag on the ground. Also jettisoned is the darker gruesome details of what Meeks discovers at some of the crime scenes he comes across. 7/10
