Garry Marshall directs ‘Mad Men’ star Vincent Kartheiser in a play about Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler and ‘Double Indemnity’

He created Happy Days and helmed hit movies such as Pretty Woman. But heavyweight director Garry Marshall’s soggy staging of the play, Billy & Ray, about the creative process, isn’t pretty — and offers few reasons to be happy. Mike Bencivenga’s fact-based tale unfolds in 1940s Hollywood, where director Billy Wilder (Vincent Kartheiser, of Mad Men), and hard-boiled author Raymond Chandler (Larry Pine) contentiously co-write the screenplay for Double Indemnity, a film noir game-changer. Thanks to a ham-fisted and cliche-packed script that saps authenticity, and clunky staging that works hard for corny laughs, “Billy & Ray feels like a triple eternity. The lead actors have done better work elsewhere. Drew Gehling plays producer Joe Sistrom. Sophie von Haselberg — a dead ringer for her mom, Bette Midler — is perky and efficient in the thankless role of Wilder’s Girl Friday.