Hedy lamarr

Well, many men, on and off the screen, fell at the feet of Hedy Lamarr, captivated by little eyes of apparent innocence that hid a lady of arms to take. Not surprisingly, the role with which she has remained most identified is that of the woman for whose love a man lost all his strength. I refer to the Biblical story of Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. De Mille, 1949).

Hedwin Eva Maria Kiesler was born in Vienna in 1914 into a banking family. She trained in Berlin with Max Reinhard at the School of Dramatic Art, she made her debut at Theater in der Josefstdt. She made the first films of her in Germany, in anecdotal roles. She then starred in Mr. OF’s Suitcases (1931) and Ecstasy (1933). This was a scandal due to the erotic scenes to which the actress gave herself, and in fact her first husband, Fritz Mandl, an arms businessman who owned the castle where The Sound of Music was filmed , unsuccessfully tried to buy all the copies of the film to destroy them. Hedy was not lucky in love: 6 marriages, and only her third husband, the actor John Loder, gave him children, 3, one adopted. On one occasion she longed for “a man who can be my husband and not feel inferior. I need a superior inferior man.”

Nazism pushed Hedy to move to England, and then to the US It was a movie escape, as the actress left her husband behind, after drugging her maid. In addition, Hedy is listed as co-inventor of a multi-frequency torpedo guidance system, used in World War II, and whose principles she had heard her husband speak with Nazi commanders. Such a system is basic in mobile telephony.

After an attempt at a film with Josef von Sternberg ( This woman is mine , a troubled film that was also taken care of by Frank Borzage and WS Van Dyke , which he finished in 1939) he starred in his first film in Hollywood, Algiers ( John Cromwell , 1938). Remake of Pépé le Moko by Julien Duvivier , it was a success, so Louis B. Mayer hired her at Metro, and she changed her stage name: she would use Lamarr for silent film actress Barbara La Marr.

Lamarr worked with James Stewart ( I Can’t Live Without You and A Ziegfeld Ziegfeld Girl , 1941), Spencer Tracy ( Life Is Such , 1942, based on Steinbeck’s work, and Goldenfruit , 1940, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert ) , Walter Pidgeon ( White Cargo , 1942) and Bob Hope ( My Favorite Spy , 1951). In the 1950s her career languished, with mediocrities like The Apple of Discord (1954); so she would stay away from the cameras, until she died in 2000.

The best Hedy Lamarr films take advantage of her coldness, an icy gaze that becomes the perfect counterpoint to her radiant beauty. Something very true in The Strange Woman ( Edgar G. Ulmer , 1946), an example of a manipulative female role. King Vidor worked with her in Comrade X (1940), a film with Clark Gable reminiscent of Ninotchka , and in Ashes of Love (1941). The director said of Lamarr that she “personified in the eyes of the world femininity in a sexual sense”, like Theda Bara, Clara Bow , Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe .. The director recounted that at an end-of-filming party, Hedy gave him a long kiss: “That night, when I got home, Elizabeth [his wife of hers] had something to ask about the telltale ‘rouge’ stain. “It’s nothing you have to lose your temper about, woman,” I told her with a nonchalant wave of my hand. it’s just about Hedy Lamarr.”