LADY BOSS: THE JACKIE COLLINS STORY

UK, 2021, 96 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Laura Fairrie.

Jackie Collins, bestselling novelist (and usually spoken of in connection with her older sister, actress, Joan Collins).

Perhaps this is all we need to know about Jackie Collins, her life, her books, her celebrity, her relationships and family. However, fans of her writing will want to know more about her glamorous life, the influence of this life on her books. There are many sequences throughout the film where long lines of fans wait their turn to get their books signed, and a chat with Jackie Collins herself, always obliging.

Jackie Collins was certainly a celebrity. She began writing at an early age, writing her diary is in the film we gives quite some attention to episodes in the diaries, and the visuals of those entries. While she had started to write some stories, it was only when she married her second husband, club-owner, older, Oscar, who is devoted to her for over 20 years, that he discovered a manuscript and urged her to write. She was successful in finding a publisher for The World is Full of Married Men, moderately successful in sales, then going on to write more.

In her early years, Jackie Collins was always in the shadow of Joan who appeared in British films, went very young to the United States for a successful career in film, then some decline, and then Dynasty and American television. Jackie Collins wanted to be an actress, did some training, some small roles, but not successful. However, after the publication of the novels and Joan getting finance for films, she was advised to go to the United States. No looking back, Oscar very supportive and their taking the children. (And it is significant that Jackie Collins’ three daughters are interviewed extensively for this documentary and very praising of their mother.)

With books like Hollywood Wives and then Jackie writing the screenplay as she did for other television series, she became a top bestseller. And she with the glamorous life, many friends, celebrities, and this documentary includes many clips of television interviews.

She took the death of Oscar very hard but then teamed up with a Playboy, Frank (with sad echoes of her first brief marriage to another Playboy who eventually killed himself). The daughters did not approve of Frank. However, he also died from cancer.

Towards the end of the film there are interesting discussions with a television host and an audience which is generally hostile to her books, considering them trash, disgusting… And not afraid to say that to her on television. She defended herself as saying that she wrote the books to describe women doing what men did without recrimination, feminist in that sense, although some of the critics noted that all her women protagonists were glamorous and wealthy and, perhaps, somewhat subjugated in their relationships with the men.

Another difficulty with Jackie Collins writing is that it is unadorned prose, straightforward sentences, this happens, this happens, then that happens, no unexpected imaginative adjectives or adverbs!

Joan Collins herself, seated like the grand dame that she is, reflecting on his sister, praising her acknowledging moments of rivalry. There are also many other friends and celebrities, one of whom noted that Jackie lived in Jackie land behind her facade.