Bombshell, an absorbing documentary from Alexandra Dean, relates how she caused a global scandal with erotic Czech film Ecstasy, made a daring escape from Nazi-occupied Vienna, wooed movie mogul Louis B Mayer and became a siren of the silver screen.
But Dean saves her biggest revelation for the final act.
The six-times married actor was a secret inventor who patented “frequency hopping”, a technology that allowed for secure wireless communications.
Her wartime invention, for which she never earned a cent, became the basis of missile guidance systems, Bluetooth, wi-fi and GPS.
Dean uses interviews with friends, family and famous admirers to tell the story of an extraordinary woman who was overlooked and often ridiculed during her lifetime.
Former Forbes journalist Fleming Meeks provides Dean with a recording of a phone interview he conducted with Lamarr in 1990.
She was by then 75, penniless and a recluse. It’s a touching and fascinating tale.
