BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY (United States, 2017, Alexandra Dean)

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Hedy Lamarr was fascinating, brilliant, and, until recently, under-appreciated. BOMBSHELL, through a wealth of archival footage and crisp storytelling, gives her genius its due. —Stephanie Zacharek, TIME

A masterful portrait of a most complex character... Restores Lamarr’s rightful place in the history not only of film, but of science as well. —Yael Friedman, The Economist  

Just as Alla Nazimova (THE RED LANTERN, 1919) was an exotic star of the silent screen, so too was Hedy Lamarr during the sound era, headlining such Hollywood classics as ALGIERS (1938), BOOM TOWN (1940), ZIEGFELD GIRL (1941) and SAMSOM AND DELILAH (1948). Born in Vienna in 1914, Lamarr began her acting career in 1930, and at age 19, gained international notoriety for her controversial erotic scenes in the Czech romantic drama ECSTASY (1933), directed by Gustav Machatý. Once hailed as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Lamarr appeared in 30 European and American productions in a career spanning nearly three decades. Her iconic visage is said to have inspired the creation of both Snow White and Catwoman.

In the feature-length documentary BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY (2017), director Alexandra Dean weaves newsreels, still photographs, and archival footage together with conversations with Lamarr’s children and friends, as well as newly-discovered audio interviews from 1990 of Lamarr recounting, firsthand, the story of her life both on and off the silver screen. In 2016, former Forbes writer Fleming Meeks discovered the cassette tapes containing these interviews, and these set BOMBSHELL apart from a typical celebrity documentary. In these tapes, a world-weary but good-humored Lamarr recounts the story of her fascinating life in the limelight — in all of its highs and lows.

While Lamarr was celebrated for her extraordinary beauty, her looks overshadowed her extraordinary intellect. BOMBSHELL recounts Lamarr’s beginnings as a rising movie star in Europe, her brief marriage to Friedrich Mandl (who was a weapons manufacturer for Hitler), her subsequent escape to America, her rise to Hollywood stardom, and her creation of brilliant inventions — namely frequency-hopping — to aid American allies in World War II.

In 1940, two years after her Hollywood debut in ALGIERS and the same year she would co-star with Clark Gable, James Stewart, and Claudette Colbert in BOOM TOWN, Lamarr met composer George Antheil (BALLET MÉCANIQUE, 1924) at a dinner party. They spoke about the looming war, and Lamarr — having knowledge of weapons manufacturing due to her marriage to Mandl — recounted to Antheil that “she did not feel very comfortable sitting in Hollywood and making lots of money when things were in such a state.” They began to tinker together with ideas to combat the Axis powers, and settled on a secure radio guidance system for torpedoes, which they patented.

Dean brings to light the full story of this astonishing woman — ignored, misunderstood, and uncredited — yet satisfied at the end of her life that she changed the world by creating a communications system that we use nowadays in our Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth devices. 

BOMBSHELL paints a portrait of a headstrong individual who yearned to be recognized for her achievements beyond her surface beauty. While Lamarr never got the credit she deserved for her groundbreaking inventions while she was alive, she was posthumously inducted into the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 2014 for her development of frequency-hopping technology. Equal parts tragic and inspiring, Dean’s documentary is a bittersweet celebration — and reclamation — of Lamarr’s journey from Hollywood superstar to technological genius.

BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY
(US, 2017)

Director: Alexandra Dean

  • 90 minutes
  • Digital
  • B&W and color
  • Sound
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server

Published By: Kino Lorber

Institutional Price: $500

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