MOVIE SEX GODDESSES----

 …………LANA TURNER

PART  -1

One of the succulent slices of  Hollywood mythology is that she was discovered by an enterprising talent scout -journalist when she was sipping soda at the legendary Schwab’s Soda Fountain seated on bar stool clad in a figure- hugging -tighter –than- tight -sweater!  Well, like most Hollywood myths she was not exactly discovered at the famous Soda Fountain but somewhere else but it was the well-stretched out costume which attracted the attention of the talent scout. Indeed the myth was so strong that for many long years aspiring young women seeking stardom similarly clad would walk into the famous joint and ask the waiters which exactly was the stool on which the star sat, and then make a beeline for it. The well-stacked actress who came to be known as ' the Sweater Girl' was the famous Hollywood sexciting star Lana Turner.

When the noted Hollywood filmmaker Mervyn Le Roy to whom she was introduced  did not see any acting talent but did certainly notice many other talents. He exclaimed, “ She was so nervous her hands were shaking… she was so shy she could hardly look me in the face. Yet there was something so endearing about her that I knew she was the right girl. She had tremendous appeal, which I knew the audience would feel.”

 Dame Fortune kissed her when Mervyn Le Roy put her under contract not with the studio but with himself   and cast her in many movies he made as independent director.  Her debut was in '' They Won't Forget '' (1937) directed by Leroy. Even though her role was small she attracted considerable attention and moviegoers around the world never forgot her afterwards! "That walk down the street of a Southern town [in the movie] would completely change my life." Lana said later. 

Turner's first success was  "Ziegfeld Girl" (1941), in which she was gorgeously dressed in feathers and a fan.  The movie was star-studded with the likes of Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, and James Stewart and others but she attracted considerable attention. Indeed in the beginning of the shooting her role was small but much to her surprise soon she was being given more scenes and dialogue. Expectedly Mervyn Le Roy who directed the movie without credit was now fully convinced that Lana was star material sure to go places. When America entered the Second World War she became the popular pin-up girl along with Betty Grable.

Stardom came to her with a bang in 1946 with the film noir classic “The Postman Always Rings Twice" as the sultry, steamy sex-starved double-crossing housewife.  Based on the explosive best- seller ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ by the noted crime writer and screenplaywright James M. Cain this novel remained unproduced though sold, for many years because of its sex content which was taboo in the Hollywood of early 1940’s! Indeed in that period in kissing sequences in bed the man had to keep one foot on the floor!  A teasing, taut tense tale of adultery, and murder, Lana has an affair with the hired help (John Garfield) and the two plan to murder the elderly husband. The sequence in which the sadly underrated director Tay Garnett introduces Lana is a classic and its meaning at many levels is still being discussed by critics and students of Cinema even after 60 years. The hired help notices a lipstick rolling his way from the staircase (lipstick is a phallic symbol!) and then the shapely legs of Lana coming down the steps are shown and at the end she appears in her fulsome fabulous beauty dressed white (symbol of purity used with a touch of irony!)

More exciting than her career was her multiple marriage, more than many lovers, and the greatest sensation of her life, the murder of her lover, small time gangster. Johnny Stampanato by her only child, daughter Cheryl….

                                                                                        (To be continued)