The Lonely Lady

Jerilee Randall, a simple schoolgirl living in the San Fernando Valley, dreams of becoming a famous screenwriter. She meets the son of a famous screenwriter at a party and accepts his invitation to come to his house. They drive away with some other people, and that night one of his friends assaults her with a garden hose. The attack is interrupted–just in time–by screenwriter Walter Thornton. Jerilee and Walter become friends, then fall in love and marry. Their marriage falls apart when Jerilee’s script rewrites actually improve one of Walter’s screenplays and he feels one-upped. Jerilee then tries to write her own screenplay and have it produced, which ends up involving her in endless sordid affairs. —Chris Holland