Customer Reviews

Biography - Linda Darnell: Hollywood's Fallen Angel [VHS]

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I grew up with Linda Darnell movies, and of all the actresses in Hollywood in the early 'forties, I thought her by far the most beautiful. She had a sultry beauty, with her heavy-lidded mocking eyes, lush, full lips and perfect features. I was in love with her, as were many others in those years. At the time, when I was in my teens, I did not realize that she was also a teenager. She played older parts, and one accepts the myth.

Nor did I realize that her private life was so fraught with problems (in those days, we called them 'problems', not 'issues'). She was manipulated and driven by a stage-struck mother who ran her life, much as did Shirley Temple's mother, to the point where her mother was banned from the lot when Linda was making a movie.

Later in life, Linda developed a problem with alcohol, and she experienced problems with the men in her life. But she was a wonderful actress, and absolutely stunning to look at, even in the tawdry parts she sometimes had to play. The girl was more than an ornament: she could act, and she did!

Her tragic death in a housefire in Chicago, visiting firends, came just as she was making a comeback, and was again in demand.

I was personally devastated by her death, and still cannot watch one of her old movies without feeling grief at her premature departure from us. She was the best.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre