Death at Studio 7
Murder mystery dinner for 6 to 8 players in Hollywood, 1934
- Players
- 6–8 players
- Duration
- approx. 3 hrs
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Ages 16+
- Cast: 3 male, 3 female, 2 any gender
- 2 optional roles
- Host plays along
Content notes: Death by violence (stated plainly, not graphic), Blackmail, Affair, Alcohol and cigarettes, Flight from political persecution (Germany, 1933), Embezzlement, A concealed illness
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What's it about?
Hollywood, Friday, November 16, 1934. On Studio 7 at Bellcrest Pictures, the night shoot for the crime picture "Fog over Macau" is under way. Scene 47 is due at 8:30 p.m., but leading man Grant Maddox has vanished. Producer Harold J. Sterling threatens everyone on the set, and at 10:00 p.m. he is found dead in his office. The head of studio security seals off the lot and sends everyone to the commissary.
You play the people who were on the set that night: the unit production manager, the leading lady, the double of the missing star, the wardrobe mistress, the director, the cameraman, a gossip columnist and the screenwriter. Nearly every character had a reason to fear Sterling, but not every one has anything to do with the death. Over three rounds you lay times, routes and statements side by side, and twice the head of security brings fresh news.
The case is demanding and told in the tone of a classic film noir; an evening takes about three hours. The solution can be worked out from the materials. As host you play along yourself, because the host guide contains no solution. Two roles are optional, so the evening also works with six or seven players.
The kit comes as a Print version with one role booklet per character and as a Digital version in phone format. Both tell the same case.
The characters
Frankie Dolan
Unit Production Manager
For twelve years Frankie has held every shooting schedule at Bellcrest Pictures together: extras, coffee, and nerves. Tonight Frankie runs the shoot on Studio 7 and now this gathering in the commissary as well.
Vivian Ashby
Leading lady
Vivian is the new star of Bellcrest: three pictures, three hits. In “Fog over Macau” she plays the singer Lily Shaw. Tomorrow her engagement to the producer Harold J. Sterling is due to appear in the papers.
Danny Cole
Double and stand-in for Grant Maddox
Danny has Grant Maddox’s height, his walk and the back of his head – just not his face. For two years Danny has stood in the light for Grant while the lamps are set, and taken the jumps when things get dangerous.
Rosa Delgado
wardrobe mistress
Rosa has sewn, mended and pressed in the wardrobe department at Bellcrest since the talkies came in. She knows every dress Vivian Ashby wears down to the last snap, and she hears more than anyone thinks.
Leopold Kastner
Director
Leopold Kastner made celebrated films in Berlin and has worked in Hollywood since 1933; “Fog over Macau” is his second picture for Bellcrest. He speaks softly, sees everything, and shoots every scene until it is right.
Eddie Malone
Cameraman
Eddie cranked silent pictures when Hollywood was still orange groves. No cameraman at the studio lights a face as beautifully as he does; the stars ask for him by name.
Lorraine Pike
Gossip columnist
Lorraine writes the column “Behind the Curtain” for a big Los Angeles newspaper. Whoever she praises gets cast; whoever she pans soon sells insurance. Tonight she is writing about Vivian Ashby.
Sam Whitaker
Screenwriter
Sam wrote “Fog over Macau” – every line, every shot, every last sentence in the rain. For weeks Sam has been working nights at the studio, because every scene Sterling doesn’t like has to be rewritten overnight.