GETTING CONFIDENTIAL WITH AUTHOR JAMES ELLROY.

Byline: Janet Maslin The New York Times

For all its sinuendo, the real city of Los Angeles can't beat the landscape of James Ellroy's writing for dark, seamy secrets and devious passions.

It's a landscape of which Ellroy, the author of the novel ``L.A. Confidential'' and assorted other cult classics like ``The Black Dahlia,'' now provides a guided tour. Camera-ready and terrifically articulate about his work, he cruises through the documentary ``James Ellroy: Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction'' in a Cadillac convertible, discussing the real-life underpinnings of his stories and the brutal events that shaped his world view.

In a 90-minute film made for Austrian television by Reinhard Jud, both Ellroy and the filmmaker clearly appreciate the sinister exoticism of Ellroy's predilections. The camera prowls through Los Angeles as the writer identifies long-gone night spots and notorious crime scenes with gusto.

Two grisly landmarks stand out in especially stark relief.

One is the Black Dahlia site, the place where in 1947 the police found the mutilated body of a young woman whose murder captured Ellroy's literary and erotic imagination. (The film includes graphic forensic pictures, and Ellroy lucidly describes the effect of such images: ``Everything is simultaneously horrific and pathetic.'')

The other is the site where, in 1958, when he was 10, his own mother was found dead. (Her murder has never been solved.) As Ellroy talks of the terrible effect both these killings had on his own life, the film becomes a valuable companion piece to his 1996 autobiography, ``My Dark Places.'' In that book, he vividly described the downward spiral of his own early life and the fierce hold that such crime stories have had for him ever since.

In a film that is none too shapely but covers many bases, Ellroy also talks about writing books that, by his own account, are ``stupefyingly complex.''

There isn't an occasion here for which Ellroy doesn't have a well-honed, hard-boiled bon mot. ``Feel the heat of hideous obsessions,'' he remarks cheerfully while signing autographs at a bookstore. This documentary feels that heat wherever it can.

THE FACTS

The film: ``James Ellroy: Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction'' (not rated).

The stars: James Ellroy; Phil Tintner (narrator); Helen Knode; the Arroyo Varsity Cheerleaders; and Barko, Ellroy's pit bull.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Reinhard Jud. Written by Jud and Wolfgang Lehner. Released by First Run Features.

Running time: One hour, 30 minutes.

Playing: Nuart, West Los Angeles.

Our rating: Three Stars.