NinadeL

Hedy Lamarr for the fourth and last time in color. You've never seen a Joan like this before. ;) "The Story of Mankind" (1921), the award-winning young adult literature by Hendrik Willem van Loon, is a truly remarkable choice as an idea for a single film. The text of the book summarizes the development of humanity from the beginning to the present, focusing on interesting partitions and parallels. However, Hollywood especially liked the idea of a film with a maximum number of stars, as in Around the World in 80 Days (1956), so the stage was set for a walk through the notorious chapters in the history of the human race.

Hedy Lamarr's second color film after Samson and Delilah and her first western. Hedy fit into the genre much like Marlene Dietrich - unexpectedly well. :) Who knew that even her specific charm would not be lost in such a harsh environment?

I somewhat missed the advertising slogan of That "Delilah" Girl, because this film offers everything other than a comparison to Hedy Lamarr's previous film Samson and Delilah. Apparently, the one costume should have sufficed as an advertisement. ;)

Hedy Lamarr's debut in a color film was the highlight of her Hollywood career. As the biblical Delilah, she foreshadowed for many years everything important for all the other beauties of the biblical epics that became so typical of the 1950s. The question is if Hedy had gotten to color film sooner, whether it would have had any effect on the current view of her legend, which seems to have fallen, quite unfairly, halfway between Elektra and Metro. In the end, it was during the filming of Samson and Delilah that Cecil was visited by Norma Desmond herself... if only she could have passed her magic on.

Hedy Lamarr couldn't have made a better choice in her early years at MGM. Becoming part of the world of adaptation, according to Steinbeck, is an automatic step toward immortality. In her case, repeatedly. Tortilla Flat is a great earthy film about people connected to the land and wine. The critics of the time were also enthusiastic that this time Hedy really had acting to do.

Poor Hedy Lamarr. She was incredibly miscast here, and no wonder, next to the nineteen-year-old Garland and twenty-year-old Turner, any other twenty-eight-year-old goddess would have looked somewhat less vivid. Fortunately, it's all based on the magic of Busby Berkeley's magical choreography and the extravagance of Ziegfeld's shows.

Although I Take This Woman was never considered the best start to Hedy's career or that of her mentor L. B. Mayer, and that there were a lot of problems during the making of it (including a guest appearance by the out-of-control auteur Josef von Sternberg), it's surprising how much more likable the film is as a result. There may not be a more absurd couple in Hollywood heaven than Hedy Lamarr and Spencer Tracy, but you'd be surprised to know that even these two found their chemistry. The story brings the desperate Hedy into his arms without any ulterior motives, because she wanted to commit suicide and he, as a doctor, saved her life. Which, after a short time, inspired her to work alongside him... and there's nothing more natural than letting the new life of these two side by side lead you into the imaginary sunset. The initially unlikely duo eventually reunited in further adventures, in Boom Town (1940) and Tortilla Flat (1942).

A spectacular Hollywood Dallas of the 1940s, or two men and one woman can only be broken up by another woman. And with Hedy Lamarr being the one, Claudette Colbert's marriage has nothing to worry about. It is too bad that Hedy only appeared in the middle (!) of the film... it could have been more brisk.

For a variety of reasons, Hedy Lamarr's remake of Pepé le Moko became her American debut. She was given a major role in it, but in a relatively small space she literally stole the entire film from Charles Boyer and that was enough to make film history. I'll be damned if I didn't want to be Charles Boyer every minute they were together... ;)

Due to the unpopular dialogue, I liked the Austrian version better. But that doesn't change the fact that there's a huge difference between loving Ecstasy and simply respecting it as a signboard for 1930s Czech cinema (even though it is a co-production). Being in the movie theater for the fourth time was just a symbiosis with the editing track... and Becce's music... and Zvonimír's gradation and Hedy's perfection. Hooray for work!