Genius

Following in the tradition of Auntie Mame, in 1962 bestselling author Patrick Dennis turned his wicked satirical pen on the insane world of fictional director Leander Starr. Rumored to be based on legendary filmmaker Orson Welles, Starr proves to be outrageous and memorable in this glamorous comedy of errors. Fleeing the IRS, creditors, and jilted lovers, Starr holes up in a Mexico City apartment, Casa Ximenez, with his faithful valet, Alistair St. Regis. To his surprise, the proprietor is none other than Catalina Ximinez, the leading lady in Starr’s early masterpiece, Yucatán Girl. “She had absolutely no talent as an actress, and to hear her shrill, rasping cockatoo’s voice, one can readily understand why Starr cast her as a deaf-mute,” observes Patrick Dennis (now a character), who has a flat in the same villa. By accident or intent, others soon descend on Casa Ximenez—Starr’s ex-wife, his estranged socialite daughter, a shady Mexican film producer, a tax collector who has chased Starr around the world, and a dim young widow sitting on a fortune in laxative stock. Starr concocts a plan to distract them all, and possibly stage a comeback: an abbreviated epic covering the history of Mexico titled Valley of the Vultures. Dennis will provide the script and the other tenants will compose the cast. And he’ll shoot it in six days. This fresh edition of Dennis’s uproarious novel is joined by a long-lost short story of Leander Starr, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas in the Railway Station,” which appeared in the Chicago Tribune Magazine of Books, as well as a new Afterword by the author’s son.