Monday, May 28, 2012

Lana Turner... A Daughter's Memoirs Documentary

Featuring exclusive remembrances from Turner's daughter, Cheryl Crane, the TCM Original documentary, Lana Turner: A Daughter's Memoirs, offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the successes, tragedies and bitter disappointments that plagued one of MGM's most popular leading ladies.

Produced by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Carole Langer (A&E Networks' The Rat Pack), the documentary will feature an exclusive interview with Crane, who shares personal observations and memories and recalls conversations where Turner confided in her about her many lovers, husbands, fears and the anxiety that resulted from her fame. Crane will also detail the incidents that occurred before, during and after the murder of her mother's lover and small-time hoodlum, Johnny Stompanato.

Celebrity colleagues and friends - including her Imitation of Life co-star and Academy Award nominee Juanita Moore; her dramatic coach, Lillian Burns Sidney; her make-up artist, Del Armstrong; and friends Robert Stack and Evie Wynn Johnson - will discuss how and why Turner's never-ending personal drama, including seven failed marriages, the risky birth of her only child, an attempted suicide and a lurid murder scandal often overshadowed her 15-year reign as the queen of MGM and the highest-paid actress in Hollywood from 1944 to 1949.

Film footage, exclusive photos and home movies will also help to tell Turner's story. Re-enactments, including the first-ever public filming at Turner's house, will feature scenes depicting her relationship with Stompanato, including the murder. The re-enactments help to explain why she turned to him for support when her career was falling apart and how the public's interest in the murder restarted her career, while her daughter was tormented by the incident.