Local writer Glenn R. Miller opens his second novel, Rough Cuts, as the golden age of silent movies is ending. Studios have developed the technology for “talkies.” Silent film director Patrick J. “Shep” Shepard understands this. He knows that his next film will be his last, and he wants it to be his masterpiece.
As Shep writes the script for The Mating Seas-On in Los Angeles, he demands more money and the best actors. But he knows that his biggest fight of all may well be with the censors. As the casting and filming of The Mating Seas-On begins in California, the governor of Ohio appoints a new member, a clergyman, to the Film Review Board.
When the rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Marietta tells the Rev. Harold Dawdry that Dawdry will serve on the Ohio Film Review Board, he takes his appointment seriously. While Dawdry knows nothing about the movies, he knows a great deal about wielding power, especially from a pulpit. The Film Review Board previews movies before they can be shown in Ohio and can demand that scenes be cut and dialogue be changed. They can ruin films. There is no doubt that Shep and Dawdry will collide.
Miller brings wit, humanity and surprise to this tale of a bygone art form and technology, as he did with his novel, Doorman Wanted.
Maureen Millea Smith is a retired librarian and an award-winning novelist.
