Detective Smoothies

Detective SmoothiesFeature Movie Script by Demian

Logline:

A professional female private detective partners with a bungling, male amateur sleuth, and an elder Jackie-of- all-trades to solve thefts. Following a pickpocket suspect leads the younger detectives to a mobster gang, who kidnap and leave them for dead.

Original title - but I still like it: "The Adventures of Squinch Ezzer and Skinny Flint: The Case of the Indiscriminate Pickpocket"

Genesis of "Detective Smoothies"

Years ago, when I was 11. Make that decades ago. A second cousin, Gerald Sowsy, told serial stories to my brother and me about a great train robbery. The men who cracked the case were the highly esteemed Squinch Ezzer, and the redoubtable Skinny Flint.

Many decades later, I recalled the adventures Gerald told us, and thought they would make an excellent feature movie stories. As often happens when one writes, the story, and, especially the characters, take a life all their own.

Squinch became a detective wannabe, and Skinny became a professional private eye, who happens to be a woman. The story is about the investigation of an unusual crime family, and there is no train robbery. Although, there may be a train heist in the future. To quote Val Kilmer in "Alexander;" "Who knows these things?"

Before "Detective Smoothies," I'd written three scrips that focused on hard times, and overcoming great odds. The stuff of High Drama. Because I wanted a break from all the hand-wringing, and nail-biting, I thought it time to write something more lighthearted.

To provide some sort of similarity to reality, I read a single book on forensic crime-solving, which informed my depiction of the detecting arts. And I was a summer camp counselor for seven years, and a camper before that, which informed the events of Skinny and Squinch's early years flashbacks.

My serious scripts always have moments of brightness, or a good laugh, to break the gloomy mood, and bring the seriousness into sharp view. It's the same as a greater Yin should always have a bit of Yang within (or greater Yang having a bit of Yin within), otherwise there's no balance, and the script, like a fruit smoothie, would not taste so good. So, besides tons of Yin-type laughs, there's just a smidgen of Yang-type kidnapping, and the threat of death by drowning. A good balance.

In the end, it takes a lot more effort to write comedies than dramas or tragedies. Why do all writers say this? "Who knows these things?"

Demian, 2021-02-07