Seen here in a fetching eyelet-embroidered gown, La Lana's life had much turmoil: her father's premature passing, seven tumultuous marriages as well as innumerable affairs (one of them ending with a dreadful finality on Good Friday, 1958). But far more devastating to her than any of those misfortunes were the critic's assessments of her performances. In her first technicolor feature, 1948's "The Three Musketeers," Pauline Kael wrote, "As Lady de Winter, Lana Turner sounds like a drive-in waitress exchanging quips with hot-rodders." And 20 years later, Kael was even more damning in her opinion of Turner in "Madame X": "She's not Madame X, she's brand X." Let's not even get into what some blogger had to say about Lana in "Portrait In Black" (my favorite of her films): "Indeed, Lana Turner takes all the prizes for making 'Portrait in Black' so watchable for me because hers is one of those truly awf...
Comments
Post a Comment