Dash and Lilly

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Dash and Lilly ★★½ 1999

Depicts the 30-year love affair between hard-drinking, promiscuous writers Dashiell Hammett (Shepard) and Lillian Hellman (Davis). Meeting in the 1930s, the successful Hammett becomes the up-andcoming Hellman's mentor. Though both are married, they also begin an affair. Eventually, their positions are reversed as Hammett's career declines and, after serving in WWII, he becomes increasingly plagued by ill health. Meanwhile, playwright Hellman has her own trials when she's blacklisted in the '50s during the Red Scare. 100m/C VHS . Sam Shepard, Judy Davis, David Paymer, Bebe Neuwirth, Laurence Luckinbill, Zeljko Ivanek, Ned Eisenberg, Mark Zimmerman; D: Kathy Bates; W: Jerry Ludwig; C: Bruce Surtees; M: Laura Karpman. CABLE