流星 Shooting Stars

Mae Feather, famous British screen actress, is publicised as a perfect wife, and is seen everywhere with her husband, Julian Gordon, a Western star employed by the same studio. Actually she is having an affair with Andy Wilks, a star comedian. Julian discovers this and decides on a divorce, which could ruin Mac’s position with her public. Desperate, she decides to kill her husband at the studios by inserting a real bullet into a ‘prop’ gun, used by the villain in the film to ‘kill’ Julian. The shot is fired, but the blank bullet is used, and Julian is unharmed. Instead, the gun is taken to another set, used in a comedy scene in Andy’s picture, and the real bullet kills him. Mac has a nervous breakdown. Julian divorces her; she begins to slip down the ladder of success.

As the years pass, he becomes a famous film director, while she is forgotten. She gets work as a film extra, and unknowingly Julian uses her in a crowd scene for his new picture. Mac waits until everyone has gone at the end of the day, and asks him: ‘Will you want me any more?’ Without looking at her, he shakes his head and she passes through the studio door, out of his life forever.

Excerpt© ‘Puffin Asquith’ by R.J. Minney.