BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMAR STORY
US, 2017, 88 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Alexandra Dean.
Yes, this is another portrait of a Hollywood star. But, no, this is not the portrait of a conventional Hollywood star.
In the 1940s, Hedy Lamarr was at MGM, appearing in a number of conventional films, but admired very much for her beauty. But, she came to Hollywood with something of a scandal behind her, her appearance in the Viennese film, Ecstasy, her appearing nude and swimming nude. (Even Hitler voiced his displeasure at this.)
If there were nothing more to Hedy Lamar’s career than ecstasy and the glamour in Hollywood, this would be a conventional biography, details of her early life in Vienna, her parents and their influence, her early performances, her taking initiatives, the danger for Jews in Vienna, the move to England for safety, the encounter with Louis B Maher, on the boat, the better contract, his treatment of her and the choices of films, even to the parody of Whitecap cargo by Lucille ball on television.
And, the background is given to the several marriages, older men, entrepreneurs, actors, and her two children and their upbringing. In later years, there was a retirement from Hollywood, the development in Aspen Colorado, the children, health, painkillers and addictions, and her choice of surgery on her face – and the visual consequences are warning against this kind of beauty treatment.
However, Hedy Lamar was far more significant than this, the film showing that an early age she had a mind for machines, dismantling and putting together machines when she was five, a curious mind, scientific bent.
The film reveals a great deal about he Lamar, the war, her scientific ideas, the theory of moving frequencies, patenting it with a collaborator, George and tile, the relationship with the American forces, the use of material, the lapsing of the patented her not getting any financial remuneration, her not knowing the legal and military details.
A lot of the film comes from taped interviews in 1990 when Hedy Lamar was 75, her reflections on her scientific work and curiosity, the development of her theories, and some sequences where her theories were put into practice – and consequences for all kinds of developments over the decades, including aspects of Wi-Fi.
Towards the end of her life, she was finally honoured publicly, a humorous sequence where her son goes to receive the awards and acclaim and she phones him in the middle of it, the opportunity for her actually to make a speech over the telephone call with her son. Her son appears throughout the film, admiration for his mother. Her daughter also appears in extensive interviews.
So, a strange Hollywood story, a glamorous actress and that career path and its limitations, an intelligent woman with a scientific bent and the development in her life.
(One of the testimonies for her is given by Mel Brooks who speaks about his admiration for her when he was young and watching the film is and his calling his character in Blazing Saddles, a tribute to her, Hedley Lamarr.)
