Girl 27

I was originally going to talk about a few different movies in this post, but changed my mind after watching Girl 27. The story is as horrifying as I expected it to be, based on the Vanity Fair article. In brief: in 1937 Patricia Douglas answered what she thought was a casting call for an MGM western picture. Instead, she and 100+ other girls were taken out to Hal Roach's ranch to a party for MGM's salesmen, who were in town for a convention. David Ross, a salesman from Chicago, brutally raped Patricia. Neither Ross, nor anyone at MGM, ever paid for the crime in any way.

David Stenn found footage of the actual sales convention, with Louis B. Mayer telling the salesmen they can have "anything they want," (which in light of later events becomes quite chilling), and even showed a clip of Ross arriving at the convention.

I've been reading comments about the movie on IMDB, and some of the criticisms I agree with; I didn't like the use of movie clips to "illustrate" (for lack of a better word) Patricia's story, especially the cartoons. It does distract from her story, and felt like padding. People commented that the interview where Patricia talks about David Stenn (the writer, director, and interviewer) was too much, but I actually liked that part; she talked about how she's never been in love and doesn't connect with other people, then we realize how fond she is of David. Maybe it did go on a bit too long.

One note of irony: when asked shortly before he died whatever became of "that girlie who took on MGM", Eddie Mannix, Mayer's toadie, said, "We had her killed." Not only did she survive, but she had the last word.