Jeanne Eagels (George Sidney\'s Jeanne Eagels) (1957)

Jeanne Eagels

“Has any sequence better symbolized the treatment of Kim Novak than the opening of Jeanne Eagels? A wide-eyed beauty with dreams of performing, she’s paraded around with the empty promise of a crown, before cruelly being thrown to the sidelines. The parallels to Novak practically write themselves.   There’s another scene where she’s asking, no begging and demanding for the chance at something meatier than being a cheesecake model, shot down, thrown to the hungry masses, and coolly performing the seductive motions while waiting for something better. The lines between the upcoming starlet and the doomed star blur repeatedly throughout, and this tension and synchronicity between the two keeps Jeanne Eagels engaging even when it drips into formulaic territory.   Shame that Novak’” read more