Accomplished documentary on the famous star, whose main attraction was her haunting, different looks – slightly bucked teeth, devastating eyes, high cheekbones. This enabled her to launch a career on stage, and then get offers from Hollywood – she was plucked from Broadway success to a 20th Century Fox contract. Not very good on screen at first, she worked hard and delivered a couple of outstanding performances, notably in Laura, The Razor’s Edge and Leave Her to Heaven. She might be best remembered nowadays though for her private life – rich father who lost his money and tried to control her; affairs with JFK and Aly Khan; the fan with German measles who kissed her when pregnant, causing her baby to be born retarded (inspiring an Agatha Christie book); the bouts of mental illness, including shock therapy, walking on a balcony, a spell working behind a counter; marriage to an oil man. High quality talking heads including Richard Widmark, Oleg Cassini (first husband, who looks kind of weird with ratty hair), sister and daughter. Good clips too of her romancing with Aly Khan.
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