DATE: Tuesday, September 23, 1997           TAG: 9709230037

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   84 lines

CYNICAL CRIME NOVELISTS DREW ON EXPERIENCE FOR "CONFIDENTIAL"

``I want to take your secrets public. I want to burn down the distance between us. I want to give you breath.''

- James Ellroy in ``My Dark Places'' (1996)

JAMES ELLROY, the man who has been called ``a blood poet who writes as chainsaws crank,'' burst into the room like a man with a mission. With no introduction, he began quoting some vaguely obscene poem, origins unknown, followed by an expected reference to how much he likes ``L.A. Confidential,'' the movie version of his 1990 crime novel.

``I didn't have to like it. I didn't expect to like it. But I do - and, if you don't, you can argue with my sex-obsessed pit bull dog about it,'' he stated flatly.

Luckily, his pit bull was not along, presumably back at his home in Kansas City.

He's a frantic, frenetic, highly unpredictable and potentially dangerous man - much like the fiction he writes, fiction that has netted him a wide audience of fanatical followers.

His so-called L.A. Quartet includes the novels ``The Black Dahlia,'' ``The Big Nowhere,'' ``L.A. Confidential'' and ``White Jazz.''

Of them, ``L.A. Confidential,'' with three main characters and dozens of subplots, was the one he thought could never be adapted into a movie. But director Curtis Hanson (``The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'') is getting rave reviews for the movie adaptation that is a return to film noir, the genre of dark, ambivalent mystery that was predominant particularly in the 1940s. Think ``The Maltese Falcon,'' ``The Postman Always Rings Twice,'' ``Double Indemnity'' right up to ``Chinatown'' and even ``Taxi Driver.''

Film noir is a world of cynical heroes who travel down mean streets illuminated only by neon reflections. And ``L.A. Confidential'' surely qualifies. The film has Kevin Spacey (Oscar winner for ``The Usual Suspects'') as Jack Vincennes, a cool, slick cop who has a sideline trapping movie stars for ``Hush Hush'' magazine. But the other two pivotal, all-important roles are played by newcomers from Australia: Russell Crowe as Bud White, a trigger-happy, macho cop who wouldn't hesitate to shoot down a culprit and Guy Pearce as Ed Exley, a slippery ambitious cop who is hated by his fellow officers. They are supported by Kim Basinger as the requisite mysterious woman and Danny DeVito as the lowlife editor of ``Hush Hush'' magazine.

Ellroy, 49, set the story of corruption, as usual, in Los Angeles during the 1950s, a city and a time he feels represents false sunshine, false hope and broken dreams.

``People go to L.A. on vacation and leave on probation,'' he said, customarily cynical about the place where he grew up.

He's woven real life references into his fictional account - Johnny Stamponato's romance with Lana Turner, prostitutes made up to look like film legends Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe and Veronica Lake.

Ellroy has written his own adaptation of his novel ``White Jazz'' for Miramax films.

``Personally, I never go to movies, except for crime movies,'' Ellroy said. ``I couldn't sit through a Western. I'm only interested in crime. To save you asking questions, I'll tell you what I like: pit bulls, sports cars, women, classical music and film noir. That's it.''

Ellroy grew up on the fringes of Hollywood. His father was Rita Hayworth's business manager. ``He arranged her marriage to Aly Khan,'' he confided.

His nonfiction book, ``My Dark Places,'' concerns his search for the murderer of his mother, who was found dumped on a roadway in a seedy L.A. suburb in 1958. He was age 10 at the time and he ``spent the next 36 years running from her ghost and attempting to exorcize it through crime fiction.''

In 1994, he went back to L.A. to team up with a cop to try and unravel the mystery. He ends the book with the lines ``I will not let this end. I will not betray her or abandon her again.''

``A good homicide officer has to have the ability to let people come to them - the ability to let people talk,'' he said.

He particularly likes Kevin Spacey in the movie ``because he can express a turbulent inner life without many outward hints.''

As for ``L.A. Confidential,'' both movie and book, perhaps actress Basinger puts up best: ``How you want to untangle the web is your business.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color KRT photo

James Ellroy

MONARCHY ENTERPRISES

Kim Basinger plays call girl Lynn Bracken in ``L.A. Confidential,''

a critically acclaimed crime drama based on James Ellroy's novel. KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW PROFILE

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