Fascinating documentary about the 1930s/1940s movie star, Hedy Lamarr (the bombshell of the film’s title, so named because the press referred to her as the “most beautiful” woman in the world), who in addition to her film work, spent time inventing some pretty cool things, including a technology that allowed the US Navy to fire torpedoes during the war without being detected. (This technology — “frequency hopping” — was the foundation for GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi; Hedy did have a partner in this work.) Of course, as a woman, and a particularly attractive one at that, people mistakenly and sadly assumed she wasn’t too bright. There was also much sadness in her life: being taken advantage of by movie studio bosses; married six times; given no credit (and no patent — thus no money) for her technical work for many years; living her last years as a recluse, using plastic surgery to unsuccessfully stall the impact of aging. Some interesting talking heads (including Mel Brooks) help make this a story that deserves to be much better known.
