‘Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story’ Profiles A Brilliant Woman

The spirited, intelligent and resourceful inventor known to the world as Hedy Lamarr gained fame in international film for her stunning beauty. Lamarr summed up her attitude to such notoriety in the opening quotation of Alexandra Dean's documentary tribute "Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story": "Any girl can look glamorous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid."

Putting Lamarr's scientific aptitude and her glamour in context, director/writer Dean describes Lamarr's contributions to cinema and science with equal emphasis on both, a rare acknowledgement of her imaginative analysis of technological challenges. Lamarr’s understanding of frequency hopping is now the basis for "secure Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cell phone, GPS and military technology." During WWII, Lamarr came up with her unique idea for remote torpedo guidance to help the British with radio-controlled torpedoes. Her idea helped avoid jamming by their not sitting on one channel.

This was not her first foray into brilliant problem solving. In the 1930s Lamarr suggested to good friend Howard Hughes that planes flew too slowly because of inefficient square wings. She studied birds and fish before advising Hughes on more aerodynamic designs, which he adopted. As analysts note and as animated sketches show, Hedy loved trouble shooting, happy that ideas came to her "naturally" with "inventions easy for me to do." 

Born in Austria in 1914 to an assimilated Jewish family, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler married the first of six times at nineteen. Her film career had already catapulted her to public attention when she swam nude in the 1933 film "Ecstasy," banned by Hitler reportedly because she was a Jewish actress. After her munitions dealer husband died of a heart attack, she stole the maid's bicycle to escape to London with jewels sewn into the lining of her coat. By1938 through her own clever manipulations, Louis B. Mayer had Hedy under contract in Hollywood, though at her demanded salary. 

"Bombshell" details all of this and more through interviews with her son, film historians, authors, and, in a gem of discovery by Fleming Meeks, a 1990 audiotaped interview with Lamarr herself. 

Dean doesn't dwell on nor does she avoid the negative elements of Lamarr's life, opting to bestow praise where it is long overdue. “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” is available now to rent or purchase at Kinonow.com