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Arabella's Notes
Hedy Lamarr |
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Ecstasy 1933 |
 a scandal at 19! |
According to Hedy, the nude scenes were never mentioned when she signed to do the film but perhaps she should have questioned a script with only 5 pages!
It was the story of Eva, a young girl who marries a much older man who proves to be impotent. She leaves him and goes back home where she meets and falls in love with a young soldier. When confronted with the nude scenes, Hedy only consented to do them if the crew, the cameraman and, heaven help us, the villagers were deployed to a hill fifty yards away. But, oops again, the camera had a telescopic lens! While the nude scenes were tame by today’s standards and, for the most part, were longshots of her swimming or running through the trees, it was the close-ups of the lady supposedly in the throes of passion that were the most objectionable to the censors. It was six years before the film was released in the United States.
Note: those close-ups of Hedy were assisted by the director…with a few well-placed jabs by a pin….in her derriere!
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Algiers 1938 |
This was John Cromwell’s remake of Julien Duvuvier’s French film “Pepe Le Moko” but don’t look for Charles Boyer to say “Come with me to the Casbah” a favorite line of Boyer imitators. It never happened because Boyer never left the Casbah until the very end and that trip cost him his life. Here was Hedy in her American film debut and she was wearing clothes.
Her new name was chosen by Louis B. Mayer because of his admiration for silent film star Barbara La Marr who died at 29 from tuberculosis. But if L. B. thought that erased Hedy’s connection with the Ecstasy scandal he was sadly mistaken. Variety claimed “In performances by a fine cast, Lamarr comes next to Boyer in a photo finish” adding that she was the notorious “star of the much censored “Ecstasy”.
I Take This Woman 1940 |
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This script was based on “A New York Cinderella” by Charles MacArthur who also wrote the first screenplay. It was the story of a doctor who falls for his patient and almost sacrifices his career over her. Studio head Mayer wanted it to showcase Hedy in her first MGM picture but it became known in the industry as “I Re-Take This Woman”. The movie started filming in 1939 with Josef von Sternberg directing when there was suddenly a dizzying game of musical director chairs. Frank Borzage replaced Von Sternberg and then MGM troubleshooter “Woody” Van Dyke took over the helm and James Kevin McGuinness did a script rewrite.
The New York Times called it “the most extensively operated-on film of 1938-1939-1940; unfortunately the patient died.” This picture did nothing to help the careers of anyone in the cast….Spencer, Hedy or upcoming starlet Laraine Day. Mayer now decided that Hedy would never be a Bergman or Garbo so she would have to fight for anything other than routine shady lady parts.
Note: Hedy met Gene Markey at a party. He was recently divorced from Joan Bennett but Hedy caught his eye and they were married the next day in Mexico.
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Boom Town 1940 |
Carole Lombard (Mrs. Gable) was so suspicious of Hedy that she showed up on location at the oil fields near Los Angeles. But she found no chemistry at all off the set. Clark liked his women buxom as well as beautiful and while Hedy had one of filmdom’s most beautiful faces she didn’t have the body to match.
This was the third film Gable and Spencer Tracy did together…”San Francisco” (1936) and “Test Pilot” (1938) were both successful. Here they play wild-catter buddies who fight over Claudette Colbert with Hedy thrown into the mix as an industrial spy who stirs up trouble. But the biggest trouble for Gable came from Tracy’s double who forgot to pull a punch in one of the scenes and caught Clark with a solid left hook. After 3 weeks of recuperation from the blow that broke his false teeth, Clark came back fitted with temporary dentures only to have them broken when Claudette kissed him too hard.
Note: This was the last time Gable and Tracy were together. Mayer wanted them for “The Philadelphia Story” but both actors knew that would be Kate’s picture all the way and turned it down.
Comrade X 1940 |
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The sexual chemistry between Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr was so potent in their last film that Mayer immediately looked for another screenplay for them. This one was a light romantic comedy written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer and based on an idea from one of the scriptwriters of “Ninotchka” Walter Reisch.
Clark was delighted by Hedy’s unfamiliarity with American slang and tried to get a reaction by using it. At the end of one day of shooting, he squeezed her hand and remarked “You’re doing great, kid. You’re gonna knock ‘em dead”. “What do you mean?’ Hedy asked wide-eyed. “ The paying customers” Clark replied. “You’re gonna lay them in the aisles”. The shocked look on her face said it all.
The movie made big box-office bucks and if the studio had worked on finding other scripts like this one, Hedy’s career would have been the better for it.
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Ziegfeld Girl 1941
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Top-billed in this extravaganza were four of MGM’s brightest stars…Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner in that order. Lana played the doomed showgirl who couldn’t cope with fame and drinks herself to death taking Stewart’s heart with her. Judy is a chorus girl who makes it to the top starring in solo musical numbers like “You Are So Beautiful” and “Minnie From Trinidad”. Hedy was there to look gorgeous but her scenes with her musician husband, played by Philip Dorn, were poignant and touching. Her big production number was “You Stepped Out Of a Dream” with Tony Martin. The whole package of romance, glamour and musical numbers (staged by the wizard of choreography, Busby Berkeley) was a box office bonanza.
It was one of MGM’s biggest and most expensive musicals and stands up even today despite the fact it was all done in black and white.
Note: Hedy followed this with another romantic comedy with Jimmy Stewart called “Come Live With Me” and again proved this was her forte. Too bad Mayer never seemed to notice.
Tortilla Flat 1942 |
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In her role as Dolores “Sweets” Ramirez, Hedy gave on of her finest performances. The film was based on John Steinbeck’s novel about a collection of colorful characters in a Monterey, California fishing village. Danny (John Garfield) comes home from the war to find he has inherited two houses from his grandfather. But he is soon imposed on by his worthless friends including Pilon (Spencer Tracy) who later repents his useless ways. Frank Morgan who plays a straight dramatic role as Pirate received a Best Supporting Actor nomination. However, the author’s ending was changed in the film to support MGM’s preference for feel-good movies.
James Robert Parrish later wrote about Hedy’s portrayal “She gave a most polished performance. It is hard to believe that she is the same actress (who) wiggled and writhed so pathetically as the infamous Tondelayo of “White Cargo”.
Note: Hedy washed dishes at the Hollywood Canteen on Christmas Eve, 1942 and met actor John Loder, twice divorced and 17 years her senior. Although engaged to George Montgomery at the time, Hedy gave George the boot and married Loder on May 27, 1943.
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Crossroads 1942 |
This a true film noir drama that puts debonair diplomat William Powell and his concerned wife (Hedy) in the hands of sinister Basil Rathbone and Claire Trevor as they set up a devious plan involving amnesia and blackmail. A remake of a French film, it is enhanced by the superb photography of Joseph Ruttenberg who really knew his noir. Variety said of it “a novel storyline which would do credit to an Alfred Hitchcock thriller.”
Hedy and Powell would team up again in “The Heavenly Body” but that film lost out to a poor script. Hedy turned down “Gaslight” and was then loaned out to Warners for “The Conspirators”. She was also working with George Antheil on her frequency-hopping invention.
The Conspirators 1944 |
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Paul Henreid plays a Dutch guerrilla fighter who has fled to Lisbon to escape the Nazis and Hedy plays a member of the underground in this cloak-and-dagger story. With Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet also in the cast, you get that old “Casablanca” feeling. Paul could be a bit hard to work with because he demanded so much of everyone. In “Ladies Man” his autobiography, he talks about one incident on the set where both he and the director didn’t feel they were getting the flushed embarrassed look they wanted from Hedy in one scene. Finally after several takes didn’t produce the desired result, Paul leaned over and whispered something in Hedy’s ear. That did it. When the director asked what it was he said to her, Paul replied “I told her that with the light behind her I could see right through her negligee, as if she were naked!”.
But apparently the critics didn’t get what they wanted. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote “A disappointing show…the faults are deep and extensive”. Could it be that Hedy’s lackluster performance were due in part to morning sickness. She became pregnant for the first time during production and daughter Denise was born May 29th, 1944.
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The Strange Woman 1946
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Louis B. Mayer had now lost interest in Hedy’s career and her contract with MGM ended with mutual consent. She promised to make 3 pictures for the studio over the next 3 years but only one was ever made. Hedy set up her own production company (a risk particularly with Hedy’s penchant for picking poor scripts) and went looking for story material. She chose this one by Ben Ames Williams who wrote “Leave Her To Heaven”. It was one of those femme fatale roles Hedy loved to play complete with period costumes and two fascinating leading men…George Sanders and Louis Hayward. The locale was Bangor, Maine in the 1820s.
On the home front Hedy was now divorced from John Loder who, she complained, completely lacked passion. But she also admitted that she seduced him to get pregnant a second time before asking for a divorce. The result was son Anthony born March 4, 1947.
Let’s Live a Little 1948
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This was a comedy with Robert Cummings, an ad executive with women trouble....he couldn’t seem to get their business without getting the business! So he looks for client who won’t want a wedding ring....an eminent neurologist with a book to sell. Wrong!
The good doc is Hedy Lamarr. There was only one thing missing in this movie….the scriptwriters apparently played hookey.
Hedy’s career continued to go south and this picture just hurried it along. Hedy was finally convinced she was a poor judge of suitable film material. “My lack of judgement is too blame. At MCA, the biggest talent agency in the world, I had the reputation of being hard to handle….I was the highest priced and most important star in Hollywood but I was difficult.” Most of the difficulty came from Hedy’s refusal to go on tour to promote her films leaving it all up to the rest of the cast.
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Samson and Delilah 1949 |
It was this Biblical epic that gave Hedy’s career a much needed shot in the arm. It was Paramount’s top grosser for 1949 and began a trend to Biblical epics that lasted for years.
As De Mille tells it, Samson’s greatest weakness was beautiful women…first the lovely Semadar (played by 24-year-old Angela Lansbury) then her younger sister, the delectable but treacherous Delilah (played by 36-year-old Hedy ). Victor Mature as Samson showed both his talent and his physique to best advantage. But the special effects in the temple scene almost stole the picture away from all of them.
Unfortunately the upturn in Hedy’s career proved to be a one-time phenomenon and soon she was back to routine shady lady roles that had no effect at the box office.
My Favorite Spy 1951
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 Bob and his leading ladies * |
There’s a story out there that our Hedy may have actually used blackmail to get this role. She caught an executive (who will remain anonymous to protect the guilty) in an extramarital affair and threatened to tell his wife if he didn’t get her a role in a Bob Hope movie. Hmmm….that begs the question… who was the shady lady in that escapade?
In this Hope-lessly zany film, Bob plays dual roles as an international spy Eric Augustine and his luckless doppelganger Peanuts”Boffo” White, a burlesque comedian. As usual Bob delivers a very funny performance. Hedy is also at her comic best as Lily, the spy’s girlfriend who falls in love with Peanuts. Their misadventures are hilarious particularly in the fire engine finale. However, not to break any bubbles but that wasn’t Hedy singing “Just a Moment More” it was ghost singer Martha Mears.
But Hedy once again angered the studio by refusing to go on promotional tours.
* Bob Hope with Jerry Colonna and all of Bob’s leading ladies: left to right- (Back row) Joan Collins, Dorothy Lamour, Virginia Mayo, Vera Miles, Janis Paige (front row) Lucille Ball, Joan Fontaine, Hedy Lamarr and Signe Hasso, circa 1961.
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The Female Animal 1958 |
This was Hedy’s last feature film…the end of a career that began in 1931. She was still very beautiful and only 45 years old. There should have been a better ending.
Hedy played Vanessa Windsor, an aging film star is almost killed in a studio mishap, and is saved by a bit player Chris Farley (George Nader) on the set. In gratitude, Vanessa gives him a job as a caretaker at her beach home but finds herself wanting more than yard work. A love triangle develops between Vanessa, Chris and her alcoholic daughter Penny ( Jane Powell). When she realizes Chris loves Penny, Vanessa attempts suicide but again it is Chris to the rescue. Soap opera at its worst. Only Jane Powell and Jan Sterling, who plays a has-been actress got kudos from the critics for this one. This was not a fitting finale for Hedy.
On the home front, Hedy was still married to Texas oil tycoon W. Howard Lee ( a record of 7 years) but it was fading fast. She would attempt another trip to the altar in March of 1963 to attorney Lewis J. Boles but that one lasted only 18 months.