Hedy Lamarr: 'Invention' and inventor on Turner Classic Movies (photo: Hedy Lamarr publicity shot ca. early '40s) Two Hedy Lamarr movies released during her heyday in the early '40s — Victor Fleming's Tortilla Flat (1942), co-starring Spencer Tracy and John Garfield, and King Vidor's H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), co-starring Robert Young and Ruth Hussey — will be broadcast on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, November 12, 2014, at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Pt, respectively. Best known as a glamorous Hollywood star (Ziegfeld Girl, White Cargo, Samson and Delilah), the Viennese-born Lamarr (née Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), who would have turned 100 on November 9, was also an inventor: she co-developed and patented with composer George Antheil the concept of frequency hopping, currently known as spread-spectrum communications (or "spread-spectrum broadcasting"), which ultimately led to the evolution of wireless technology. (More on the George Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invention further below.) Somewhat ironically,...
- 11/2/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, Algiers Hedy Lamarr can be seen later this month on Turner Classic Movies: I Take This Woman (1940) will be shown on Saturday, April 28, and The Conspirators (1944) on Monday, April 30. I Take This Woman was a troubled production that took so long to make — W.S. Van Dyke replaced Frank Borzage who had replaced original director Josef von Sternberg — that punsters called it "I Retake This Woman." Spencer Tracy co-stars as a doctor who marries European refugee Lamarr. Jean Negulesco’s The Conspirators has several elements in common with Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, including an "exotic" World War II setting (in this case, Lisbon), conflicting loyalties, male lead Paul Henreid, and supporting players Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Curiously, at one point Lamarr had been considered for the Casablanca role that eventually went to Ingrid Bergman. Neither I Take This Woman nor The Conspirators did much for Hedy Lamarr’s Hollywood career.
- 4/24/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Calling Hedy Lamarr (2004) Direction and Screenplay: Georg Misch Recommended with Reservations Hedy Lamarr Shot in digital format, Georg Misch's entertaining documentary Calling Hedy Lamarr has the look of a well-crafted low-budget movie and the feel of a quirky independent film. That is hardly the sort of approach one would expect to find in a documentary about one of the most beautiful, most glamorous, and most synthetic film stars of the 20th century. Yet, Misch mostly gets away with it. What Calling Hedy Lamarr lacks in terms of style and depth of analysis is compensated for by a sly, offbeat look at the cult of celebrity in American culture. In Calling Hedy Lamarr, several friends and family members of Austrian-born actress and phone addict Hedy Lamarr (1911 or 1913-2000) get together in a staged conference call to talk about the legendary movie star. Among those are Lamarr's former South Florida neighbors,...
- 3/11/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Hedy Lamarr Hedy Lamarr was a major MGM star in the early 1940s. Among her movies at the studio were I Take This Woman, Boom Town, Comrade X, Ziegfeld Girl, and White Cargo. Her co-stars included Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor, Clark Gable, William Powell, and Walter Pidgeon. As the decade came to a close, Lamarr had her biggest box-office hit: Cecil B. DeMille's Paramount release Samson and Delilah, starring Victor Mature. After her movie stardom had faded, Lamarr was involved in a few bizarre incidents. In 1965, she was arrested in Los Angeles for shoplifting. Though later cleared of all charges, she lost a small role in the B movie Picture Mommy Dead because of that incident. Zsa Zsa Gabor replaced her. Curiously, there would be another shoplifting charge in Florida in 1991, this time for $21.48 worth of laxatives and eye drops. Lamarr's attorney explained that the shoplifting was actually a case of absentmindedness: Lamarr,...
- 3/11/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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