American artist held by desperate criminal in Hollywood musical (6,6)
I believe the answer is:
easter parade
'hollywood musical' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'american artist held by desperate criminal' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'held by' indicates putting letters inside.
'criminal' indicates an anagram.
'a'+'ra'='ara'
'desperate' is an anagram of 'easterpde'.
'ara' placed into 'easterpde' is 'EASTER PARADE'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for easter parade that I've seen is " 1948 musical film".)