The Female Animal

Beautiful simple story! A little film in film, complicated love story, drama, very well interpreted. Hedy Lamarr is beautiful and full of charm in her latest film. Jane Powell is also beautiful, charming and sexy. Jan Sterling also has her moment of brilliance. Worth seeing!

While I viewed this on TCM last night I was often tempted to switch to something else. But I JUST HAD TO FIND OUT HOW THE DRAMA ENDED for the three lovers. It was all so dated of course and now seems very campy. But I feel the three leads did a good job. And I was taken aback by Jane Powell's vixen and George Nadar's HUNKness. She was 'stacked' and he looked virtually * much of the time. All they all needed was to have the 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' arrive at the beach house!

This movie was Hedy's last. It was intended as her comeback film but her time had past. The plot was a rip off of Sunset Blvd. Hedy plays a aging, movie star named Vanessa Windsor who has a party girl brat adopted daughter. Ms Lamarr was 45 years old when this movie was made and she aged well. This movie is pure late 50's in theme and fashion. If you can find this film on TV which it seldom appears, ( I found a pirated copy on Ebay ) it is a worthwhile film but it pale's to Hedy's glory days of the 40's. It is always fascinating to see the stars of the silver screen of the 30's and 40's in their more mundane later work.

Fading movie star Vanessa Windsor (Hedy Lamarr) is saved from a filming accident by extra Chris Farley. She takes an immediate interest in her rescuer. Penny (Jane Powell) is her grown troubled daughter. In a fitting coincidence, this is Hedy Lamarr's final movie. I don't think George Nader is quite charismatic enough. He needs to be a true hunk. He's too stiff and too conservative for this to be a steamy romance. A modern version would have a younger and more willing man. At times, he comes off as self-righteous. This has lots of potential. I just don't think he's that much of a prize. The obvious comparison is Sunset Boulevard. It has similar tones but it doesn't reach those heights.