Baird Whitlock wakes up and finds himself in a luxury beach house in Malibu. His kidnappers are members of a communist cell called The Future. Most of the members are Hollywood writers who are embittered by the fact that the studios they write for make most of the profits on their creations. Hence their devotion to Communism... they dream of the day when, in a leftist Utopia, all of the studio owners' money will be taken from them and given to the deserving- writers. Whitlock, never the sharpest tool in the shed, is at first alarmed, then confused, and then fascinated by the rhetoric of these "brilliant" men. He is soon soaking in the doctrine of Communism, almost forgetting that he was kidnapped. Speaking of which, the $100,000 ransom which The Future is demanding is to fund their cause because, as we can see by the way they lounge about the mansion drinking cocktails, the struggle is real. Meanwhile, back in the world of dirty capitalism, Hobie is out on his Mannix-mandated date with Carlotta. They attend his movie premiere and then go to a nightclub. Fortunately, Carlotta is as nice and down-to-earth as Hobie, and they have a good time together. Tipped off by Mannix, both of the Thacker sisters show up to attempt to get the scoop on the "relationship" between Hobie and Carlotta. Then, as they sit at their table, Hobie glances over at another table and sees the suitcase which he had seen Mannix put the ransom in at his office. It is by the seat of Burt Gurney, all-American actor, who subsequently gets up and leaves, briefcase in hand. Hurriedly apologizing to Carlotta for ending their evening early, Hobie hops in a car and follows Gurney at a distance as he heads out of town. It turns out that the luxury beach house in which The Future is meeting belongs to Burt Gurney, who is their leader. Once he arrives with the ransom, he orders his followers to row him out to sea. Once they reach a certain point, a Russian submarine surfaces and Burt Gurney boards it, off to U.S.S.R. His adoring commie followers implore him to take the ransom money for the cause. As they reach to hand the case to Gurney, his dog jumps from the rowboat into Burt's arms, knocking the money out of his hands. The case falls between the boats, sinking into the depths. Without a word, Gurney and his dog descend into the submarine, which then submerges. The writers are left to row disconsolately back to shore. Meanwhile back at the beach house, Hobie has cautiously entered, not knowing what to expect. Whatever he was imagining, it was probably not Baird Whitlock cluelessly lounging about, still in costume, sipping a cocktail. Ignoring Baird's witless babbling about the precepts of communism, Hobie hustles him into the car and hurriedly drives away to get the star back to Mr. Mannix. While on the road, a bunch of police cars pass by them, sirens wailing, headed for the beach house. It turns out that Mannix had tracked down the extras who had drugged Whitlock and found out from them where Baird had been taken. Back at the studio the following morning, Baird is sitting in Mannix's office, cheerfully burbling about his experiences. He makes the mistake of approvingly repeating the communist talking points, denigrating Capitol pictures as capitalist elites. Dumb as a bag of hammers, he doesn't notice the storm clouds gathering on Mannix's face. Mannix slowly rises, comes from behind his desk, and jerks Baird out of his chair by his collar, slapping him across the face several times. He tells Whitlock that he'd better not badmouth the studio again, and that he's to get back to work on the movie. Whitlock is shocked, and afraid- despite being a tough guy, he's not used to physical violence- but seems to get a hold on himself when Mannix orders him to act like a movie star. In the end, all is well. DeeAnna Moran marries and her husband will adopt her baby. Mannix also manages to put an end to Thora Thacker's threatened expose on Baird Whitlock. It turns out that her source was Burt Gurney and Mannix points out that it wouldn't do her reputation any good to let it be known that she was fraternizing with a Russian defector. All the films are back in production, especially Hail, Caesar! and Eddie Mannix finally makes a decision about the alternate job offer. He turns it down.
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