Pulp

Mickey King (Michael Caine) is an author of trashy genre novels with no ambition of becoming a legitimate writer. After ex-actor Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney), a man known for having ties to the mob, hires Mickey as a ghostwriter for his biography, Preston is murdered at a party. Inspired by the detectives of his noir fiction, Mickey investigates Preston's death and crosses paths with a transvestite hit man, a beautiful princess (Lizabeth Scott) and a mysterious clairvoyant.