Customer Reviews

What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Hoping that this would be a long anticipated biography on one of my all-time favorite movie stars, Miss Hedy Lamarr, I eagerly began reading this book by author Devra Z. Hill, who claims to have been friends with the late Miss Lamarr.

From the bizarre, unattractive neo art cover of what was a stunning Hedy Lamarr photograph, it all gets worse after that. But then, the dreadful cover is totally adept to the book, which makes no sense. As I read on I kept expecting (and hoping) that the book would return to a "normal" biography once I passed the first 30 pages.

Instead of attempting a true and tried account of Lamarr's life, Devra Z. Hill resorts to fictional writing and skips everything known about Hedy Lamarr; including birth and parents, important years in her life, her films, the actors she knew and worked with, her frequency hopping invention that led to today's cell phone. Even the names of Lamarr's husbands and children are omitted. But I wondered why? This book has a few studio-standard photographs, nothing revelatory. What's left after that you might ask? Well, the answer is obvious: nothing. And that is sad, as Hedy Lamarr was one of Hollywood's most beautiful, fascinating and intelligent women of all times. She truly deserves a real biography.

This book is supposed to chronicle the years of 1940 to 1967 but nothing relevant is to be found. I recommend any admirer of Miss Hedy Lamarr or anyone who is even remotely interested in her life to skip this one and opt for her ghost-written autobiography, Ecstasy and Me. Or better yet, The Films of Hedy Lamarr by Christopher Young. Those are certainly worth your time and money.

I have so many issues with this book in terms of the many ways it failed to live up to expectations:

1. At a most basic level, the book is filled with mis-spellings. "Choked" is spelled as "choaked" and there are many more such errors to find throughout the book. Totally unacceptable.

2. The writing is so simplistic and contrived. A character who is implied to be Greta Garbo uses "I want to be alone" as part of the first thing she ever says when introduced -- and repeats this several times for the few pages she occupies this novel. This book is so full of tired cliches, it's so disappointing.

3. Given the press and the publisher's description of the book, I really thought it was going to be more biographical rather than sensationalizing on a dead celebrity with mostly made-up trash.

4. Perhaps most egregious, I learned the author based this story on notes she had taken back in the 60s when she was invited by Hedy Lamarr to write her biography. Shortly thereafter, Lamarr was arrested for shoplifting and that somehow ended the author's associations with the actress. I can't help but feel the author is doing a disservice to someone who is dead and who can not defend herself. She used information that Lamarr gave her in confidence over 40 years ago to profit by writing a completely sensationalistic book. Looks like Lamarr is being used once again.

I'm merely writing to echo what the other 1-star reviewers have to say about this poorly written, poorly researched and poorly formatted book. It makes me question if there is any veracity to the gossip and speculation appearing on these pages. Certainly, the author/s have no ability to write or think. This poor attempt at exploitation is insulting(we are talking about a book replete with 3rd and 4th grade spelling errors, written for a reading audience of about 11 years old and based on a foundation of inaccuracy, hearsay and gossip).

Among other obvious attributes and talents, Hedy Lamarr possessed a mathematical brain with a refined scientific appitude. This is insulting trash and should in no way be associated with Hedy's legacy.

You are foolheardy to even consider spending a cent or a kopeck on this trash.

Thought it was going to be a biography on Hedy Lamarr. Was disappointed that it was a fiction story loosely based on Hedy Lamarr's life and experiences. A waste of money.

Hedy Lamarr was a mysterious and beautiful woman who became famous in Europe during the 1930s with her racy performance in the German film, Ecstasy. Devra Hill, who interviewed Lamarr late in her life over a period of years, brings to light a variety of salacious facts in "What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr." A fictionalized version of a true story, this book takes you into the life, times and mind of a person who was called "the most beautiful woman in the world."

Lamarr's strange marriage to an Austian arms manufacturer, who was responsible for her trist with the Fuhrer of the Third Reich, ended when she escaped his clutches by dressing up like the maid and just walking out of their house (They lived in the mansion where the Sound of Music movie was filmed). A natural beauty, her acting career in the U.S. flourished in the 1940s and '50s. This book is a interesting trip through the life of a fascinating woman.

"I just read "What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr" and found it to be fascinating, sexually interesting and humorous. It kept my attention to the last page and made me think it would make a great movie!" What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr

Hedy LaMarr to this day can arouse the most impotent of the male species by just looking at photos of her in her prime. Millions of men and women the world over have at one time fantasized about having sex with Heddy Lamarr or at least watching her having sex. Someone finally came forward and provided the next best thing to fullfilling that fantasy. Although it is based on a true story from the author Devra Hill, who claims LaMarr confided in her about these sexual trysts (including working around the one testicled Adolf Hiter, the book reads like an eyewitness account, but coupled with a modern day style as though you were reading an x-rated sex story from the pages of Hustler. The corraboration with a notorious Hollywood Madam in writing this book now makes sense. Prudes need not read this book. It is an orgasm of delighful eroticsim yet tells the inner most secrets of one of the most beautiful women who ever walked this planet. Brian Cowan