A Hell of a Note

My love for Lou Perryman began with seeing him act in this short film, a likely warm up for "The Whole Shooting Match." At a recent showing of a remaster of "Last Night at the Alamo" at the Paramount Theater in Austin, TX, there was a gathering afterward. I got the chance to ask Lou about the lines in "Hell of a Note." I knew the screenwriter, Lin Sutherland, and somehow the lines didn't quite sound like her. He admitted that much of the dialog was ad libbed between he and Sonny Davis. Their exchanges revealed characters with depth and spirit--the kind of guys it would be a pleasure to know. Over the years since, I did maintain a friendship with Lou. The tragedy of an untimely death was foreshadowed in this first film, truly a hell of a note.