Pulp (1972) on Netflix

Plot summary

Ben Dinuccio represents a famous client who wants to stay hidden, and he offers Mickey King the job of ghostwriting that person's memoirs. King, a British writer of pulp fiction who lives in Italy and publishes under many names, accepts because the fee is generous. Dinuccio sends him first on a long tour of Italy, so that the client's identity and whereabouts stay secret, and tells him an unknown representative will get in touch along the way and lead him to the subject. The subject is Preston Gilbert, a former Hollywood star living in exile who played gangsters on screen and was rumored to have mobsters in his private life. Gilbert has been told he is terminally ill and wants his life recorded.