The Cat's Meow concentrates on this gossip-filled weekend aboard Hearst's boat.

Hearst (Herrmann) and his lover, screen actress Marion Davies (Dunst) set sail from San Pedro Harbour early one Saturday morning, hosting a small group that includes the silent movie star Charlie Chaplin (Izzard), film pioneer Thomas Ince (Elwes), gossip columnist Louella Parsons (Tilly) and the British novelist Elinor Glyn (Joanna Lumley).

The 1920's soundtrack pulses nostalgically throughout the film as the guests let their spit curls down.

Frenetic Charleston dancing and late night revelry turns to bootleg whiskey, marijuana and debauched nocturnal activities.

The story is in itself a classic. A love triangle involving Hearst, Davies and Chaplin and the misunderstanding that leads to the death of Thomas Ince.

At the beginning of the movie Joanna Lumley, as novelist Elinor Glyn, and the film's narrator, says:

"Everything was told in whispers. This is the whisper most often told."

Director Peter Bogdanovich first heard about the story referred to as 'the whisper' from Orson Welles while the two were working together some years ago.

The story appeared in the first draft of Citizen Kane but Welles eventually took it out. The character of Charles Foster Kane is rumoured to be based on Hearst.

Eddie Izzard is astoundingly competent as the womanising Chaplin whilst Kirsten Dunst lends herself seamlessly as the beautiful 1920's starlet Marion Davies.

Bogdanovich's direction leads the cast to caricature but this seems to suit the nostalgic feel of the film without tumbling it into ridicule.

The phrase the cat's meow - 1920's slang for great - is more often than not left out of contemporary dictionaries and comes from a line spoken by Ince as he boards the yacht in sarcastic response to their impending embarkation.

A common parlance of the era, it's a fitting banner for a film that deserves its title.

Vickie Juett