Showbiz History: Hedy's Nude Scene and Paul Dano's Debut
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 8:00AM 4 random things that happened on this day, January 20th, in showbiz history
1933 The infamous erotic drama Extase (Ecstacy) starring Hedy Lamarr, and filmed simultaneously in three languages (German, Czech, French) premieres in Czechoslovakia. It would take years to travel the Globe since it kept running into trouble with censors due to Hedy's nude scenes and being one of the very first movies to depict a female orgasm (Hedy's perfect face in close-up). Famously brainy Lamarr helped translate the original Czech screenplay into German and French for filming...
1966 The Don Knotts comedy The Ghost and Mr Chicken and the Sophia Loren Nazi-revenge drama Judith open in movie theaters.
2001 The very disturbing L.I.E. premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on this day. The dark film about two teen hustlers (Paul Dano and Billy Kay) entangled with a pedophile (Brian Cox) was a critical darling in its year scoring various critics prizes or nominations for Cox, an NBR award, and 7 Independent Spirit nominations, with Paul Dano winning for "Best Debut Performance".
2017 Split starring James McAvoy as a multiple-identity killer and Anya Taylor-Joy as his prey opens in theaters becoming a surprise hit.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 43rd birthday to César winning actor Omar Sy of The Intouchables and Chocolat fame. We either had never seen this Vogue photoshoot from 2012 featuring Jessica Chastain or we'd forgotten about it but wanted to share. Next up for Omar is the franchise return Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Other showbiz birthdays today: Auteur David Lynch (more on him later today), Auteur Federico Fellini (about whom we wrote a bunch last year for his centennial), Spanish director José Luis Garci (The Grandfather), Oscar winner Patricia Neal (Hud, Face in the Crowd), Evan Peters (American Horror Story), Rainn Wilson (Juno, The Office), Oscar nominee Margaret Avery (The Color Purple), Michael Nardone (The Night Manager, Child 44), Skeet Ulrich (The Craft, Scream), Colin Clive (Christopher Strong, The Bride of Frankenstein), Lorenzo Lamas (Grease, Falcon Crest), problematic Stacey Dash (Dionne in Clueless), Tom Baker (Doctor Who, Nicholas and Alexandra), Huntley Ritter (Bring it On), DeForest Kelley (Star Trek), George Burns (Oh God!), Daniel Cudmore (Collossus in X2), Mary Louise Burke (Series 7 The Contenders, Sideways), talking heads Melissa River and Bill Maher, musicians Questlove, Will Young, and Paul Stanley, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin who turns 91 today. He has been played onscreen by numerous actors including Cliff Robertson, Bryan Cranston, James Marsters, and Corey Stoll.
Brian Cox, Hedy Lamarr, LIE, Omar Sy, Paul Dano, Split, nudity, on this day
Reader Comments (16)
David Lynch is also a musician and those of you who like atmospheric piano music that is brooding, a shade creepy, and lonely-introspective should check out his album with Marek Zebrowski called "Polish Night Music" (2007). It has touches of frequent collaborator Angelo Badalamenti, Max Richter, and Krzysztof Penderecki, but ghostlier. A soundtrack for an unfilmable film.
Outside of Hedy Ecstasy isn't much. Worth seeing for her in nascent form but that's about all. Your time would be better spent watching one of her more interesting films like H.M. Pulham, Esq or The Strange Woman or even better the fantastic doc Bombshell.
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken is so ridiculous but also such silly fun.
Patricia Neal should be discussed more. Her strokes slowed her down but she was a brilliant actress and a tough admirable survivor. So many great performances but if you haven't seen A Face in the Crowd you haven't seen one of the greatest performances ever committed to film.
How do you make a movie simultaneously in 3 languages, repeat every scene in each languaage?
The perfect Hedy Lamarr movie for fans to die from ecstasy is Experiment Perilous(1944), a wonderful perverted noir. And later a charming MGM comedy with the charming e nervous James Stewart, Come Live With Me(1941).
The perfect Hedy film is the documentary Bombshell were you learn more about her than any film she was in.
What happened to Billy Kay? He was terrific in L.I.E.. He gives me some Brad Renfro vibes
KC - that's exactly what they did at the beginning of sound films. TCM has shown Spanish and French Laurel & Hardy films. You can google "Multiple Language Versions" and the Wikipedia article list is extensive.
I'm surprised there hasn't been a big budget biopic of Hedy Lamarr. What could be a better story if you're going full inside Hollywood?
Omar Sy is starring in Lupin, an absolutely thrilling new Netflix miniseries that is evocative of the best of Hitchcock.
@Dave in Hollywood: I’ve always thought the same thing about Lamarr — what a cinematic life she led! Maybe a limited series might do her story more justice?
I've always considered "Ecstasy" to be quite impressive. There's little dialogue in it, but the whole thing unfolds with a kind of hushed, poetic intensity. I find Hedy Lamarr at her best in different films than the ones cited above. She's, of course, luminous in "Algiers', but I also find her dialogue delivery in it quite sensitive, especially considering that speaking in English was still fairly new to her. at the time. In some of her early MGM films ("Lady of the Tropics:."I Take This Woman, "Ziegfeld Girl"), there's a lovely fluidity to her work, a tone of tender introspection that I find irresistible. And - of course - her beauty's astounding in all three. I also think she's seen at the full force of her powers in 1947's "Dishonored Lady", an independent production released by United Artists.
HEDLEY!!!!!!
Gal Gadot is playing Hedy Lamarr in a limited series:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/gal-gadot-led-hedy-lamarr-series-moves-apple-showtime-1296281
Sighs over Sy.
It’s good that a lot of people warmly remember beautiful, sensuous and cleaver Lamarr (yep, a miniseries about her life as movie star and scientist could be a great entertainment, Gal Gadot should prepare herself for another Wonder Woman) but I would like to watch more about Gustav Machaty, Extase director
I miss Jessica Chastain! Can she be back on Oscars track?