Calling Hedy Lamarr: Inventor, Glamour Goddess, and Hollywood Icon – Part 2

November 28, 2017 | By

Earlier in 2017 I wrote a blog and reviewed a pair of docs whose respective directors examined in most peculiar ways Hedy Lamarr’s role as an inventor of frequency hopping, credited as the precursor to Wifi and Bluetooth.

Even if taken in as two parts of a series on the actress-inventor, Calling Hedy Lamarr (2004) and Hedy Lamarr: Secrets of a Hollywood Star (2006) proved very unsatisfying, and Alexandra Dean’s 2017 examination Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017) provides the needed and necessary wrap-up, using a more traditional structure to chronicle the atypical life of a Hollywood icon – the ‘world’s most beautiful woman’ by day, and perpetual inventor by night.

The film is currently screening at Toronto’s Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, and unlike the prior docs, it’ll more than likely enjoy a wide home video release (especially since the production has PBS involvement).

After delving into the review of the 2017 doc, I’d strongly suggest checking out the prior blog + reviews, as the filmmakers of the prior docs present looser, subjective views, and offer some additional archival material, and interviews (many of whom have likely passed on).

Coming soon: reviews of A Life in Waves (2017), Brett Whitcomb’s doc on modular synth pionner & composer Suzanne Ciani, making it’s Toronto Premiere tonight at the Royal Cinema alongside The Delian Mode (2009), a short doc on BBC Radiophonics Workshop whiz Delia Derbyshire by Canadian Kara Blake, who will offer an intro at tonight’s screening.

 

 

Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

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