James Ellroy's Feast of Death

Bestselling crime author James Ellroy (L. A. Confidential, American Tabloid) comes naturally to his unseemly preoccupation with mystery and murder: when he was 10 years old, his recently divorced mother was slain and the ensuing investigation resulted in no arrests. As this intermittently engrossing documentary reveals, the youthful Ellroy transferred some of his feelings about his mother's case to his obsession with the grisly 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, the infamous “Black Dahlia.” In filmmaker Vikram Jayanti's 2001 documentary Feast of Death, Ellroy elaborates on this and other favorite hobbyhorses (including the JFK assassination), appearing both tormented and volatile, which is not altogether surprising. Yet, in a curiously bizarre way, Ellroy also seems to relish his reputation for morbid eccentricity and his nickname as the “demon-dog” of American crime fiction. Some viewers will find the author off-putting, but fans of his fiction will appreciate this profile, which is ostensibly devoted to unsolved murder cases but really more noteworthy for its glimpse into Ellroy's psyche. A strong optional purchase. Aud: P. (E. Hulse)