Chapter 55: Comedy by Contrast

William White pondered that if Beverly Hills Cop had been starred by Sylvester Stallone, it wouldn't have been a comedy, and there wouldn't have been any sequels. It would have flopped badly. A muscle-bound guy should be doing First Blood; doing a comedy would be a disaster. This shows just how unreliable big Hollywood productions can be. The success of Beverly Hills Cop was similar to that of Police Academy; the comedy came from stark contrasts. Misfit guys becoming cops create enormous contradiction and contrast; that was the gist of Beverly Hills Cop's plot. Compared to the crime-ridden Detroit of Sin City, Beverly Hills cops were like rookies, more like gentlemen than police officers. Their typical duties might involve rescuing cats and puppies or helping wealthy ladies who forget to turn off their alarms. In terms of police density, Beverly Hills had one of the highest in the U.S. They were always well-dressed and courteous. If you thought all U.S. cops were like that, you were naive. The number of cops wasn't based on need but on tax revenue. A crucial tax type was property tax, a quite peculiar and exclusive tax. Taxes collected from one block couldn't be used in the neighboring block. Property values in Beverly Hills were high, so property tax revenue was increasing every year. Hence, the public facilities were excellent, with good schools and many police stations. If a theft occurred, more than five police cars would arrive in five minutes, and some of these cars were donated by wealthy individuals. Long Island and the Upper East Side in New York were similar. Queens in New York and Detroit were unfortunate, as police might take an hour to respond to a shooting, not because they didn't want to send officers, but there were simply not enough cops. The more chaotic a community, the lower the property prices; no millionaire would want to live there. At the extremes, some neighborhoods became havens for the homeless, without property tax revenues. Keeping the area clean was about all that could be expected. The contrast between a super cop from Sin City and a cop from Beverly Hills was laughable. Movie artistry exaggerated this contrast shamelessly. Joining a bunch of well-dressed cops was as out of place as you could imagine. The essence of this movie was contrast. In its previous life, this movie was not a comedy. It's hard to fathom how an action film turned into a comedy. By the time of the second movie, the director ad producers had come to their senses, and it became increasingly popular, eventually achieving box office success. William White initially didn't plan to keep it modest. He exaggerated the Beverly Hills cops into gentlemen. As for that Detroit cop, ha, drawing a gun over any small disagreement was better. William White even thought, this guy should have been a Texas cowboy, and Detroit cops weren't this rash. They usually handled things after the fact and stayed far away when rival gangs clashed. The issue was, that was just the setting of the time. Don't be fooled by Texans carrying guns in the streets; their police were just as laid-back. Good folks were too heavily armed, and bad guys behaved more. ... The futures market continued to boom, and William White had to split his focus. Silver prices nearly hit twenty bucks, and nothing was as profitable. The world was reducing leverage and combating inflation, making the silver futures market stand out even more. If silver hit twenty bucks, a futures contract would be worth a hundred thousand dollars. To leverage a thousand dollars to mobilize a hundred thousand was downright magical. Many futures brokers started requesting higher margins; the risk was too great. Just a 1% fluctuation could cause a meltdown. When had such a thing ever happened on the futures market? "Young master, we've already completed 50% of the profit takings," said Fulton excitedly. The past few months felt like a dream; making money seemed all too easy. "Alright, Fulton, don't worry too much. If it goes above twenty bucks, we'll speed up the sale, clear out everything in the U.S. by October," William White said, unable to remain calm. Making money was too easy; even a printing press wouldn't be this efficient. "Young master, what about the London contracts? Prices there aren't as strong." "Haha, America's mainly worried about Hunter family tricks. They're insane this time. I can't believe they'll stop in time." William White knew full well that these nuts eventually pushed silver to fifty bucks. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, silver and gold soared, with gold peaking near eight hundred bucks. These futures maniacs, in their frenzy, ignored the feelings of major economies, and this blind greed for wealth caused many to lose everything. No one worldwide sympathized, as this risked collapsing the global economy. The strong depreciation of the dollar infuriated others. If it depreciated by 90%, even the global leader couldn't handle it. At this time, while the U.S. might be cheeky, it wasn't entirely shameless. The 2008 subprime crisis was different. Then, their printing press went crazy, causing economic woes worldwide. ... The new movie's cast was set, enabling team development. White Films was advancing rapidly and no longer a makeshift outfit. If you had enough money to throw around, you'd have no problem hiring talent of any kind. For Hollywood moguls, the greatest challenge was finding a suitable script. Scripts for White Films were all written by the boss, a notion that left people speechless. If someone else had written these scripts, they would spare no effort to get them. This era's scriptwriters weren't nearly as flashy as those in future generations. Although future writers didn't have it easy, they had it much better than at this time. Hollywood had too many scripts. In a place where even taxi drivers and janitors wrote scripts, could one really hope to strike it rich through scripts? Don't kid yourself. An annual income of two hundred thousand bucks was already considered top-tier, and bestselling novelists earned much more. Talented folks usually switched to writing novels. In fact, many great scripts were written by amateurs. Take Terminator, for example; Cameron was fixated after seeing Star Wars, and then, feverishly, Terminator was just a nightmare from his imagination. See, the guy wasn't even a cabbie -- just a truck driver -- and came up with a great script. If he hadn't insisted on directing it himself, it would likely have been sold long ago. ***** https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.