In this week's New York Times Book Review, Gerald Howard writes about Norman Mailer's movie Maidstone. Shot in the Hamptons in 1968, partly scripted and partly improved, Maidstone stars Mailer as Norman Kingsley, an art-film director contemplating a run for the presidency. Ultra Violet, Hervé Villechaize and Rip Torn, among others, also appear in the film.

Howard describes Maidstone as "a Norman Mailer version of a Rat Pack movie, albeit in the manner of Artaud." Mailer described it as “guerrilla raid on the nature of reality.� It all sounds like a big self-indulgent mess, until the ending, which Howard renders in detail:

Then came the last three minutes, which guarantee “Maidstone� a kind of immortality. The filming proper was supposed to have ended one very late night in a so-called “Assassination Ball,� where Mailer/Kingsley, in top hat and tails, delivered a vainglorious speech to the assembled cast, though disappointingly to many, no attempt on his life was staged. The next day the cast went to rustic Gardiners Island to decompress and use up some leftover film. [D.A.] Pennebaker’s camera captures them strolling about the fields and then focuses on Rip Torn, who removes a hammer from a backpack, strides over to Mailer and hits him on the head twice, announcing: “You are supposed to die, Mr. Kingsley. You must die, not Mailer. I don’t want to kill Mailer, but I must kill Kingsley in the picture.� Shocked, Mailer wrestles him to the ground, and they roll down the hill in an ugly tussle, Mailer biting Torn’s ear as Mailer’s wife and children scream.

Of course, YouTube has a clip of this climactic moment, which more than lives up to Howard's description.

Want more? There are stills from the ending, along with the script/transcript, here.