Hedy Lamarr IV: Private Impressions
Hedy Lamarr – Q&A with Author Patrick Agan: Part III
Did you know Hedy Lamarr personally? If so, what was your impression of her? Of those you’ve spoken with about Lamarr, what did they have to say about her as a person?
Yes, I did know Hedy and she was delightful, a bit demanding at times but also very charming and always ready to laugh. And despite the fact that she always had to be “Hedy Lamarr” in public, she was a very human person. She always felt her looks kept her at a disadvantage when meeting new people. Her beauty undeniably opened many doors, but it also closed many another. I admit that when I first met her I [...]
by Andre Soares | February 13, 2007
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Tags: Ann Sothern, Books, Classic Movies, Hedy Lamarr, Interviews, Patrick Agan, Sidney Guilaroff
Hedy Lamarr III: CASABLANCA, Private Life
Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr in Algiers
Hedy Lamarr – Q&A with Author Patrick Agan: Part II
Is it true that Hedy Lamarr refused the lead roles in Casablanca, Gaslight, and Saratoga Trunk? If so, do you know what her reaction was after those three films became huge hits for Ingrid Bergman?
Let’s get one thing straight off the bat. Hedy Lamarr never turned down Casablanca.
L. B. had her solidly booked for several movies, two of which, I think, defined both her talent and her image. True, [producer] Hal Wallis wanted her for it, but Mayer said no as he had Tortilla Flat, Crossroads, and White Cargo already lined up.
Why should L. B. have loaned her over to [Warner [...]
by Andre Soares | February 13, 2007
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Tags: Casablanca, Charles Boyer, Classic Movies, Gaslight, Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, Interviews, Patrick Agan, Saratoga Trunk, The Conspirators
Hedy Lamarr II: Arrival in Hollywood
Hedy Lamarr in Tortilla Flat
Hedy Lamarr – Q&A with Author Patrick Agan: Part I
Do you have a favorite Hedy Lamarr film and/or performance?
As for a favorite Lamarr performance, I would have to say Tortilla Flat is right up there. Her performance as the Mexican girl, Dolores, was amazing in its simplicity and clarity, and Karl Freund’s cinematography brought out an earthiness that she’d never shown before. This was a girl who knew she was beautiful, but she also knew there was much more to life than that and wasn’t ready to settle for anything less than a faithful husband with a job. Hedy had to go to the front office to get that part. The chemistry between her [...]
by Andre Soares | February 13, 2007
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Tags: Books, Classic Movies, Hedy Lamarr, Interviews, Josef von Sternberg, Louis B. Mayer, Patrick Agan, Samson and Delilah, The Female Animal, Tortilla Flat, White Cargo
Hedy Lamarr: Q&A with Author Patrick Agan
Author Patrick Agan, among whose books are Clint Eastwood: The Man Behind the Myth and The Decline and Fall of the Love Goddesses, has been working on a biography of MGM star Hedy Lamarr, at one point considered one of the most beautiful women this side of Orion.
The Austrian-born "exotic" import was brought to the studio in the late 1930s, and would remain at MGM well into the following decade. Though hardly one of the greatest actresses to come out of either Europe or Hollywood, Lamarr possessed an undeniable charisma that made her thoroughly watchable in both biblical and modern tales, whether well cast or totally miscast, whether fully clothed or fully naked (as in Gustav Machatý’s scandalous [...]
by Andre Soares | February 13, 2007
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Tags: Algiers, Books, Classic Movies, Comrade X, Ecstasy, Hedy Lamarr, Interviews, Louis B. Mayer, Patrick Agan, The Heavenly Body
CALLING HEDY LAMARR Notes
Mischief Films
Georg Misch’s entertaining documentary Calling Hedy Lamarr takes a look at the woman behind the fabulous face.
Below are a few notes on Hedy Lamarr’s life and career:
Hedy Lamarr’s six husbands were:
munitions dealer Fritz Mandl (1933-1937),
writer-producer Gene Markey (1939-1940),
actor John Loder (1943-1947),
bandleader and part-time actor Ernest "Teddy" Stauffer (1951-1952),
oilman W. Howard Lee (1953-1959); he later married another dark-haired beauty, actress Gene Tierney,
and attorney Lewis J. Bowles (1963-1965), Lamarr’s lawyer in the divorce case against Lee.
***
Husband #1, Fritz Mandl, unsuccessfully tried to buy all copies of the notorious 1933 Czech melodrama Ecstasy (1933), in which Hedy Lamarr (then known as Hedy Kiesler) appears nude. (In its review of the film, Variety [...]
by Andre Soares | December 16, 2004
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Tags: Algiers, Calling Hedy Lamarr, Classic Movies, Comrade X, Ecstasy, Ecstasy and Me, Fritz Mandl, Georg Misch, Hedy Lamarr, John Loder
CALLING HEDY LAMARR d: Georg Misch
Calling Hedy Lamarr (2004)
Direction: Georg Misch
MY PHONE LADY
Shot in digital format, Georg Misch’s entertaining documentary Calling Hedy Lamarr has the look of a well-crafted low-budget movie and the feel of a quirky independent film. That is hardly the sort of approach one would expect to find in a documentary about one of the most beautiful, most glamorous, and most synthetic film stars of the 20th century. Yet, Misch mostly gets away with it. What Calling Hedy Lamarr lacks in terms of style and depth of analysis is compensated for by a sly, offbeat look at the cult of celebrity in American culture.
In Calling Hedy Lamarr, several friends and family members of Austrian-born actress and phone addict Hedy Lamarr (1911 or [...]
by Andre Soares | December 16, 2004
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Tags: Algiers, Calling Hedy Lamarr, Classic Movies, Documentaries, Ecstasy, Films on Filmmaking, Georg Misch, Hedy Lamarr, John Loder, Three-Star Movies
