Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story is a documentary film which premiered on 2017.
The topic is the life and career of the famous Austrian-born American actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Writer and director: Alexandra Dean
** Executive producer: Susan Sarandon
** Narrator: Diane Kruger
** Subtitles: English
** Released on DVD in 2018
** Run time: 90 minutes
Several persons are interviewed in the film (friends and members of her family).
Here is a partial list:
** Peter Bogdanovich
** Mel Brooks
** Fleming Meeks
** Richard Rhodes
Hedy Lamarr was born in Austria in 1914. In 1938, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, she moved to the UK and from there to the US where she became a famous movie star.
She was married six times and had three children. At the height of her career, in the 1940s and the 1950s, she was known as the most beautiful women in the world.
Towards the end of her life, she became a recluse who avoided public appearances. She died in the US in the year 2000.
This film covers her personal life and her career as an actress. It focuses on an aspect of her life that is not so well-known: her role as an inventor.
Hedy was more than a pretty face. She had an inquisitive mind. Working with her friend, the composer George Antheil (1900-1959), she made several inventions.
During World War II, she was deeply concerned about the loss of human life when German submarines hit and sank allied ships in the Atlantic Ocean.
She invented a radio-controlled torpedo that could be guided towards its target. She made sure that the radio communication was secure by using a principle called frequency hopping.
The technical details of this invention – for which she received a patent - are explained very well in the film.
Her invention was not used during the war, but it was introduced by the US Navy during the 1960s. By that time her patent had expired, so the US Navy did not have to pay her to use it!
As you can see, the title Bombshell has a double meaning:
# 1. Hedy Lamarr was a beautiful woman.
# 2. Hedy Lamarr invented a radio-controlled torpedo which could blow the enemy out of the water.
Her beauty was a blessing and a curse.
It was a blessing, because it was her ticket to Hollywood. It gave her fortune and fame, at least for a while.
It was a curse, because most people judged her by her looks. It was difficult for her to find anyone who wanted to meet the person behind the beautiful façade.
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are some results:
** 70 percent = Meta
** 74 percent = IMDb
** 85 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
** 95 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
On Amazon there are at the moment more than 1,100 ratings of this product, more than 240 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.6 stars which corresponds to a rating of 92 percent.
As you can see, the ratings are quite good. I understand. As far as I know, this film is what I call an ABC-product:
** Accurate,
** Balanced, and
** Comprehensive
This film comes with subtitles.
Subtitles are necessary for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, but this is not all.
Subtitles are also helpful for people who can hear in cases where the quality of the sound is poor.
In this film, there are several occasions where the quality of the sound is poor, because the person who is speaking is not speaking clearly. It is difficult to understand what is being said.
This problem is most acute when excerpts of a rare interview made with Hedy in 1990 are played.
Fleming Meeks did the interview, which was lost and recently found again.
The rare interview is preserved on four cassette tapes.
It is good that some parts of this interview are included here. Unfortunately, the quality of the sound is extremely poor.
Hedy does not speak clearly; she mumbles. Perhaps because she was getting old. It is not always easy to hear what she says.
Subtitles are very helpful in this situation.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
PS # 1. For more information, see the following biography:
Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
by Richard Rhodes
(2012)
PS # 2. The following item is available online:
Manohla Dargis,
“Review: ‘Bombshell’ Tells the Amazing Story of Hedy Lamarr, the Star and Inventor,”
New York Times,
23 November 2017.
*****
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