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The Deal
The Deal makes a movie at Hollywood’s expense
"Peter Lefcourt’s book The Deal is one of the funniest books about Hollywood to come along in some time," claim the reviews on its back cover. In this tale down-on-his-luck hero, Charlie Berns is an independent film producer that hasn’t had a job in so long that he is actively trying to commit suicide as the book opens. He has even sent his updated resume to Hollywood magazine, Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter so that when his body is found the two publications gets the facts of his career right.
Just as he is about to asphyxiate himself by filling his completely seal Beverly Hills Flats home with carbon monoxide fumes from his 560 SEL Mercedes, his nephew, Lionel B. Travitz, from New Jersey shows up with a script about the life of Benjamin Disraeli for him to produce. Something about Lionel’s screenplay Bill and Ben jars Charlie out of his depression and propels him and the reader through 18 chapters of the funniest, most cutting satire of Hollywood and the movie industry I’ve ever read.
"A few hours ago Charlie Berns was a man at the end of his rope, or more accurately, his tail pipe. But that was before Lionel showed up with a scrip. A producer was someone who had a property. And Charlie now had a property. Or would have in the morning when he optioned the rights to Bill and Ben."
This book is full of colorful characters not the least of which is the main character. "This is not a guy you want to get involved with," says the female lead Deidre Hearn. "This guy is a walking minefield. He’s in his fifties, probably has at least two ex-wives… His career’s in the toilet…I mean nobody knew who he was before this picture. He lives in a white elephant in the Flats with ripped-out shrubbery and no telephone…He’s kind of funny looking, sort of rumpled and out to lunch. He looks like he just woke up half the time…But there’s something about him…"
And Deidre is equally complex. "‘Look, Deidre,’ Ellen (Deidre’s analyst) had said, ‘you’re almost forty. You’re a big girl. It’s time you started walking past cliffs without leaping.’" Others characters that crop up out of Charlie’s mental and outdated physical Rolodex include Madison Kearney, the drunken screenwriter Charlie finds in an East Sunset Boulevard bar to rewrite the script. Then there’s Dinak Hrossovic, a moody Serbian who hates dealing with actors, and cannot tolerate studio executives, but is the ideal action director for the movie. The book was written in 1991 when Yugoslavia—the setting for a good portion of the book—was still a unified country.
If you’re looking for a fast, funny read, you will not be disappointed with The Deal. The plot is intricate, the action is non-stop, and the characters are outlandish, especially the industry’s movers and shakers—the extras—that Lefcourt takes great delight in lampooning.
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