在这部银海追缉令犯罪/剧情/惊悚片中,被美国放逐的退休好莱坞明星聘请英国的廉价小说作家为他当自传的捉刀人，不料这本看似轻松的工作竟然逐渐变成恶梦，因为围绕在这位过气明星身边的没落贵族和神秘情妇不是被杀就是想杀掉作家，使他不得不扮演自己书中的侦探追查事件真相。由迈克．霍德吉斯执导的这部英国侦探片一方面具有紧张悬疑气氛，一方面又对好莱坞影城的内幕有所讽刺，风格犹为别致。尽管全片的成绩不是很均衡，但两位主角米高．肯恩与米盖．罗纳的演出相当精彩，使它维持了不错的娱乐性。
Michael King is a seedy writer of sleazy pulp genre novels under a half dozen sensational pseudonyms whose ambition is to dictate 10,000 words per minute to stenographers a la Earle Stanley Gardner. He's recruited by the agent of Preston Gilbert, a quirky ex-Hollywood star currently living reclusively in exile in Malta, to help him write his biography. Despite being pursued by an enigmatic hit man, Gilbert has a large entourage of eccentrics and remains an inveterate practical joker. After Gilbert is eventually murdered by an apparent priest, King tries to stay alive himself while interacting with a variety of idiosyncratic characters including an ersatz princess, a henpecked clairvoyant, and a cross-dressing hit man.
