Saturday Night Cinema: That Strange Woman (1946)

Tonight’s Saturday Night Cinema is The Strange Woman, starring one of the most beautiful women of all time, Hedy Lamarr. It is a costume drama wrapped in a cloak of film noir, Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Strange Woman (1946) stars Hedy Lamarr as a young woman who claws her way to power in 19th-century Bangor, Maine. The child of an alcoholic father (Dennis Hoey), Jenny Hager (Lamarr) understands the weaknesses of men, and quickly learns to exploit them.

It’s a grim take on an evil femme fatale. If you’re not a Hedy fan, it may not be your cuppa, but by Gd, that woman was gorgeous. As if that weren’t enough, she was a genius.

Guardian: Let’s take a moment to reflect on the mercurial brilliance of Hedy Lamarr. Not only did the Vienna-born actor flee a loveless marriage to a Nazi arms dealer to secure a seven-year, $3,000-a-week contract with MGM, and become (probably) the first Hollywood star to simulate a female orgasm on screen – she also took time out to invent a device that would eventually revolutionise mobile communications.

As described in unprecedented detail by the American journalist and historian Richard Rhodes in his new book, Hedy’s Folly, Lamarr and her business partner, the composer George Antheil, were awarded a patent in 1942 for a “secret communication system”. It was meant for radio-guided torpedoes, and the pair gave to the US Navy. It languished in their files for decades before eventually becoming a constituent part of GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.

Lamarr’s inventing talents didn’t stop there, though: she also came up with “bouillon” cubes to turn water into a Coke-like drink, and a “skin-tautening technique based on the principles of the accordion”.

Lamarr is not the only unlikely celebrity to have moonlighted as an inventor. In 1841, Abraham Lincoln preceded his US presidency with the invention of a flotation system for lifting riverboats stuck on sandbars; 30 years later, the writer Mark Twain patented (under his real name, Samuel L Clemens) an adjustable strap for “vests, pantaloons and other garments requiring straps”. And in 1914, the early Hollywood star Florence Lawrence invented an “auto-signalling arm” for cars – a precursor of today’s indicators.

https://youtu.be/EueX9HoBZbM

‘ The Strange Woman’ Stars Hedy Lamarr at the Globe — ‘Angel and Sinner’ at the 55th Street

A.W., NY Times, Published: February 24, 1947

Undoubtedly every actress this side of ten yearns for a tour de force and Hedy Lamarr, who plays the title role in “The Strange Woman,” which came to the Globe on Saturday, can consider that yearning wholly realized. For the somber drama of a Suave sinner in Bangor, Me., of a century ago affords Miss Lamarr her meatiest assignment in years, a chance at large chunks of choice dialogue and an opportunity to wear a wardrobe that won’t go unnoticed by the ladies. But as a study of a singular distaff temperament set off by a coterie of ruined males, this adaptation of Ben Ames Williams’ best-selling novel of a few years back has a way of telegraphing its punches. A revealing dissection of a predatory femme fatale it nevertheless lacks motivation for some of its supporting players, pace and suspense to make it completely moving drama.

The producers have followed Mr. Williams’ blueprint fairly faithfully in delineating Jenny Hager as a Lilith among lumbermen. Her coquette’s eye beckons the aging and wealthy merchant and lumber baron, Isaiah Poster, into marriage. This liaison of convenience is broken by her design and affair with Isaiah’s weakling son, who unwittingly leads his father to his death. Cast out of the house, the bewildered and broken scion, knowing Jenny for the Jezebel she is, takes to drink and finally commits suicide. But by now, Jenny, the richest, most powerful and most respected dame in Bangor, has cast her wiles over John Evered, her overseer, and incidentally, her best friend’s fiancé. Their marriage and childless union is a happy one until a circuit-riding evangelist brings her to the realization of her evil.

As the grasping, wily wanton, Hedy Lamarr is beautiful, even in peplum and bustle. She is a desirable, sagaciously vicious and passionate woman, who very conceivably might captivate men easily. But her rather sudden discovery of her baseness through the evangelist’s warning that “the lips of the strange woman drip honey, but her end is as bitter as wormwood,” is a mite too gilb and abrupt. Gene Lockhart is propeerly sanctimonious, suspicious and penurious as her first spouse. Louis Hayward’s brief role, as his ill-fated son, is not a full portrait, but a credible one, while George Sanders, as the overseer, and for once, a good man, makes the most out of the character he portrays. Like Mr. Williams’ prose, “The Strange Woman” is expertly handled, but somehow the excitements of her life are rarely projected from the screen.

THE STRANGE WOMAN, screen play by Herb Meadow; based on the novel “The Strange Woman,” by Ben Ames Williams; directed by Edgar Ulmer; produced by Jack Chertok; presented by Hunt Stromberg and released through United Artists. At the Globe.
Jenny Hager . . . . . Hedy Lamarr
Tim Hager . . . . . Dennis Hoey
Isaiah Poster . . . . . Gene Lockhart
Ephraim Poster . . . . . Louis Hayward
John Evered . . . . . George Sanders
Mrs. Hollis . . . . . Olive Blakeney
Meg saladine . . . . . Hillary Brooke
Judge Saladine . . . . . Alan Napier
Rev. Mr. Thatcher . . . . . Moroni Olsen
Deacon Adams . . . . . Rhys Williams
Mrs. Thatcher . . . . . Jessie Arnold
Lena Tempest . . . . . June Storey
Lincoln Pittridge . . . . . Jan Keith
Mr. Partridge . . . . . Edward Biby
Miss Partridge . . . . . Katherine York