Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

Bombshell: The Heady Lamarr Story
Directed by	Alexandra Dean
Written by	Alexandra Dean
Produced by	Susan Sarandon Michael Kantor Adam Haggiag
Release date	23 April 2017 (2017-04-23) (Tribeca Film Festival)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,500,000 (estimate)

Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story is American 2017 documentary about the life of the actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr (1914 - 2000).

Synopsis

The film follows the life story of Lamar from her youth as the daughter of assimilated Austrian Jews through her rise to fame, the Nazi onslaught, her departure for the United States, six marriages, her acting career, her landmark invention, decline, shoplifting and plastic surgery adventures and finally her death at the age of 85 in 2000. However the focus of the biopic is her co-creation with George Antheil of the technology of frequency hopping which has since been employed the by the military and in cell phones, GPS and blue tooth.

Critical reception

Manohla Dargis writing in the New York Times says of the film ..."Directed by Alexandra Dean, “Bombshell” is a very enjoyable addition to what has become a minor Hedy Lamarr industry that includes documentaries, books and stage productions. Like some of these other accounts, this documentary traces the arcs of Lamarr’s personal and professional lives, which by turns harmoniously converged and wildly veered in opposite directions. Whatever happened, it was rarely dull. The daughter of assimilated Jews, she married a munitions magnate who came with a castle and did business with Mussolini. When she decided to ditch her husband, she staged (or so she claimed) an escape that turned her into the heroine of her own thrilling adventure"....