Harlan Dexter

Harlan Dexter is the main villain of the 2005 comedy movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. A retired actor having reinvented himself as a businessman and Hollywood socialite, he at first seems to be nothing more than the host of a lurid party attended by protagonists Harry and Harmony. However, it soon becomes clear that he's the center of a sordid conspiracy that may involve Harmony's recently-deceased sister...

He was played by Corbin Bernsen, who also played Vulcan in American Gods.

Prior To The Film
Twenty years prior to the start of the film, Harlan Dexter was a highly successful actor, most commonly appearing as the lead in Hollywood blockbusters. A fan of the classic Johnny Gossamer mystery novels, he not only collected the entire series, but also went so far as the star in the film adaptation as the title character.

The production took place in a small southern Indiana town, and it was here that Dexter was first seen in action by the future main characters, Harry Lockhart and Harmony Faith Lane, along with Harmony's sister Jenna. Like Dexter, all three kids were fans of the original Johnny Gossamer novels, Jenna was more enamored than most: having been molested by her father from a very age, she longed for an escape. Hoping to make up for her inability to stop the abuse, Harmony told Jenna that she was adopted, and that her real father was Harlan Dexter - unwittingly forming the basis of a lifelong obsession.

Once the filming was over, Harlan returned to Hollywood. Over the years, he retired from acting and went into business, eventually becoming the owner of the highly-successful Dexter Clinic, a private mental institute. Unfortunately, his home life was far from harmonious, and his relationship with his daughter Veronica gradually broke down, prompting her to leave for Paris.

Ten years later, Harlan's wife died, leaving behind a three million dollar inheritance - which Harlan claimed for himself. Veronica immediately flew back to Hollywood and demanded her share of the money, and when her father refused, took him to court: now being sued for several million dollars more than the original inheritance and facing financial ruination, Harlan only ended up souring the relationship with his daughter even further by calling her a cunt.

It was at this point that Harlan took drastic steps to avoid parting ways with the money. As a fan of mystery novels, he was able to puzzle out a method of ending Veronica's lawsuit without the police becoming involved. With the aid of criminal associates, he tracked down a woman by the name of Mia Frye, who looked just enough like Veronica to pass in public - and more importantly, withdraw the complaint. Then he had the real Veronica kidnapped and imprisoned at his clinic, where she could be passed off as a mental patient for the rest of her life.

With Mia now impersonating Veronica full-time, the financial situation was settled: the complaint was withdrawn, Harlan was allowed to keep his millions, and "Veronica" claimed to have become a Born-Again Christian in order to explain her change of attitude. On the rare occasions where she had to be seen in public as herself, Mia wore a pink wig so she wouldn't be recognized. Also around this time, Harlan began a sordid affair with Mia, often having sex with her while she was still disguised as his daughter.

Unknown to Harlan and her sister, Jenna Lane decided to act on her obsession around this time: having come to believe that Harlan really was her biological father, she left home for California and began stalking him across Hollywood.

Events Of The Film
By the beginning of the story, Harlan and Mia have been maintaining the ruse for three months. Harlan feels so confident in it that he even hosts a lavish birthday party for her at his mansion, attended not only by success stories like producer Dabney Shaw and private detective-turned-consultant Perry Van Shrike (AKA Gay Perry), but also Harry Lockhart and Harmony Lane, both of whom are trying to make a start on careers in acting.

Harry is actually introduced to Harlan at this point, supposedly being groomed by Shaw to become the star of a neo-noir movie, complete with detective lessons from Perry. He even gets a a look at the impersonator as she prepares to cut the cake, though neither he nor Perry are aware of who she really is.

Unknown to all until the end of the film, Jenna manages to sneak onto Harlan's property not long after the party wraps up, hoping to introduce herself to her "father" at long last. She instead finds Harlan having sex with Mia; like the rest of Hollywood, she has no idea that Veronica's been replaced by a lookalike and thus assumes that Harlan is engaged in an incestuous relationship with his own daughter.

Heartbroken by the realization that her "real" father is just as bad as her old one, Jenna steals her sister's credit card and uses it to hire Perry's services as a private detective: having learned from her secret visit that Harlan will be with his daughter at a cabin near Big Bear Lake the following evening, she pays Perry for video surveillance of the cabin, believing that he will walk away with enough footage of incest to get Harlan arrested. She then kills herself via gunshot to the head.

It is around this time that Harlan's foolproof scheme hits a snag: Veronica's boyfriend is flying in from Paris to celebrate her birthday. Up until now, the ruse has held up perfectly since Veronica had been out of the country for a decade and few had seen her up close following her return; however, Veronica's boyfriend had known her for years, and would know Mia for a fraud on sight. Realizing that he can no longer continue this masquerade, Harlan has Veronica brought to the cabin at Big Bear Lake the following evening, where she is promptly murdered. As with Jenna's discovery, the truth of what happened remains unknown until the end of the film.

However, Perry and Harry are also at the lake - the former on surveillance, the latter taking detective lessons. Though they don't see the murder take place, they do see a car being crashed into the lake with Veronica's body in the trunk: Perry tries to get the body out of the trunk by shooting the lock off, only to end up shooting Veronica's corpse in the head, meaning that they can't report the crime without looking guilty. Worse still, the two are seen by Harlan's hired thugs, Mr Frying Pan and Mr Fire.

That same evening, Veronica's body turns up in Harry's hotel room along with the murder weapon, and an anonymous tip-off sends the police investigating. However, Harmony is able to delay the police long enough for Harry and Perry to dispose of the corpse.

As more details behind Jenna's suicide and Veronica's murder come to light, Harry, Harmony and Perry become more involved: Harmony doesn't believe that her sister killed herself, instead suggesting that Harlan Dexter murdered her. Unfortunately, this leaves them once again being targeted by Harlan: Harry, being the least competent of the group, manages to get away with a beating when Frying Pan and Fire corner him at a party; Perry, meanwhile, is hired to perform surveillance on a girl wandering McArthur Park. However, the girl is actually Mia Frye (in her pink wig), and she's actually the bait for an ambush on Perry.

In the confusion that follows, Harmony manages to save Perry's life, resulting in Mr Frying Pan being shot dead by a fast food vendor. Mia flees the scene by stealing Harmony's car - unaware that Harry is in the back seat, high on painkillers. Harlan soon realizes that he can't afford to leave the lookalike alive now that she's been privy to an attempted murder, and orders Mr Fire to tie up this loose end: regaining consciousness at Mia's house, Harry enters just in time to see the pink-wigged girl being murdered by the hitman, and in a state of shock, shoots Mr Fire dead by way of retaliation.

With no further leads, Harry and Perry's investigation appears to be over. However, Harry absently recalls that Veronica Dexter wasn't wearing underwear when they found her body, a clue that sends the two of them all the way to the Dexter Clinic: as Perry reveals, the patients aren't allowed underwear - finally revealing the full scope of Harlan's scheme. However, the two assume that Jenna Lane was impersonating Harlan's daughter and was eliminated to tie up loose ends.

On their way out of the clinic, Harry and Perry are caught by an orderly, and though they are able to overwhelm and kill him, this ends up getting the attention of Harlan himself. Accompanied by his henchman Aurelio, the entrepreneur holds the two at gunpoint, and though Perry's phone rings jut long enough for Harry to grab it by slight of hand and call for help (impressing Harlan in the process), it at first appears to be a call from a carpet-cleaning company; in reality, the call was from Harmony, and she races to the scene in an attempt to rescue the two.

By this time, Harlan is moving to cremate Veronica's body before anyone can notice the difference between her and the lookalike: he has already acquired her corpse (complete with a coffin) and has loaded it into the back of a van so it can be transported to a furnace that very evening. So, while Aurelio tortures Harry and Perry for information on anyone else they told about the case, Harlan orders his men to get the body to the crematorium, trusting that Aurelio will eliminate the detectives once he's finished interrogating them.

Just as the henchmen are debating on who drives the van, Harmony arrives on the scene and steals it, forcing Harlan and his goons to give chase. Meanwhile, Aurelio's torture session goes awry when Perry targets his homophobia, taunting him until he loses composure and tries to attack him - only to get shot with a derringer Perry was hiding in the crotch of his pants ("homophobes never check there"). Escaping, the pair join the pursuit.

Harmony is eventually driven off the road, crashing the van into the railing of an overpass, and in the process, the coffin is ejected from the rear doors and gets stuck on a sign on the edge of the overpass - Veronica's hand flopping out of the open lid for good measure. Harmony is knocked unconscious during her escape down an embankment, Perry is shot during a gunfight with Harlan's men, and though Harry receives superficial wounds, he is able to recover.

Harlan himself then tries to run Harry over, forcing him to leap over the edge of the overpass, just managing to grab Veronica's hand and save himself from falling into oncoming traffic. With his gun stuck on the other end of the coffin and Harlan moving towards the railing to finish him off, Harry appears to be out of luck; however, he is able to budge the handgun from its perch and catch in mid-fall - just in time to shoot Harlan in the chest with it.

"Captain Fuckin' Magic!" a surprised Harlan Dexter remarks, and collapses out of shot, dead.

Trivia

 * The Johnny Gossamer film shown is actually footage from the 1987 film Dead Aim, in which Corbin Bersen had a role.