Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017)

My Review

The fascinating life of movie star Hedy Lamarr is the subject of the documentary film “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.” Director-screenwriter Alexandra Dean put together this comprehensive look at her life including her birth in 1914 and childhood in Vienna, Austria, to Jewish parents; her motion picture career, including clashes with Louis B. Mayer and Cecil B. DeMille; interviews with her two children; and her scientific aptitude which led her to develop (with songwriter George Antheil) frequency hopping, a method of transmitting radio signals by quick switching of channel carriers. This invention helped the U. S. and Britain in World War II to prevent the Nazi’s from jamming radio-guided torpedoes.

After the war, Lamarr and Antheil applied for a patent for the invention with the government, which was denied. The technology was later used in wifi, cell phones, and other modern inventions. Lamarr never spoke of this in interviews, or so it was thought, until four cassette tapes were discovered in which she was chatting with journalist Fleming Meeks about that and other topics. “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” from documentary director Alexandra Dean just goes to show us that Hedy Lamarr was not just another pretty face.