Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.
Showing posts with label Jane Ellen Wayne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane Ellen Wayne. Show all posts

Thursday, October 6, 2016

LANA: THE LIFE AND LOVES OF LANA TURNER

LANA: THE LIFE AND LOVES OF LANA TURNER. Jane Ellen Wayne. St. Martin's; 1995.

This fairly short, readable volume provides an overview of the life and career of Lana Turner, whose acting talents were always questioned (in spite of giving some effective performances in certain films such as These Glamour Girls and A Life of Her Own), and whose troubled marriages and love life were widely reported on in the press. Lana, who apparently was always "Lana Turner," seemed to marry men who were less interested in the woman herself and more in her beauty, fame and money. She is a perfect example of someone who seems to have everything but whose personal life provides only heartbreak and emotional turmoil. The biggest scandal in La Turner's life was when her daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed Lana's brute of a lover, Johnny Stompanato, to death -- Crane wrote her own book, but questions still remain about this incident, which was turned into the book and movie Where Love Has Gone with Susan Hayward in the Lana role. Lana documents virtually every affair Turner had, as well as most of her movies, medical issues, and later years which were undeniably difficult for an aging glamour queen. One of Turner's ex-husbands, actor Stephen Crane, appeared in Cry of the Werewolf. Jane Ellen Wayne also wrote Stanwyck.

Verdict: Page turner for Turner fans and movie star enthusiasts in general. ***.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

STANWYCK Jane Ellen Wayne

STANWYCK, Jane Ellen Wayne. Arbor House; 1985.

This biography takes a positive approach to Stanwyck's acting and a fairly negative approach to her private life and personality, beginning with a sequence that claims she went to ex-husband Robert Taylor's funeral and made it all about her. There is some behind the scenes info on her films; less analysis of her technique and the major films themselves, although Wayne doesn't ignore them. Wayne implies that Stanwyck sort of convinced Robert Taylor that he was gay, and that an [unnamed] psychologist talked Taylor out of it. These dated passages are laughable, as it is unlikely a man who didn't have some attraction to men would bother seeing a shrink about it in the first place. Wayne does not discuss Stanwyck's sexuality in depth. The book mentions how Stanwyck and first husband Frank Fay adopted a boy and then pretty much abandoned him. Basically this is a good read, however, despite its flaws, and it may give some readers some insight into aspects of the woman's career if not her personal life. NOTE: This was updated after Stanwyck's death and retitled The Life and Loves of Barbara Stanwyck. This author has not seen that book and this review is strictly of the original edition.

Verdict: Not bad, if you take some sections with a grain of salt. ***.