The 7 Hedy Lamarr Movies Every Classic Hollywood Fan Needs to Watch

I love classic Hollywood so much. It was a time of such magic and such wonderful marketing. Without the internet, you had to grab people in different ways. That's why when MGM signed a contract with Hedy Lamarr, they sold her as "the most beautiful woman in the world."

The thing is, I think they were right at the time.

Hedy Lamarr was gorgeous, but her most significant contributions to society weren't her looks; they were her genius. She was a self-taught inventor who co-patented frequency-hopping technology during World War II.

Yeah, she helped beat the Nazis.

But that's a different post. Today, I want to focus just on the acting and talk about her best roles as an actress.

Let's dive in.

1. Ecstasy (1933) - Eva Hermann

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• Director: Gustav Machatý
• Writer: Gustav Machatý, František Horký, Vítězslav Nezval
• Cast: Hedy Lamarr (as Hedy Kiesler), Aribert Mog, Zvonimir Rogoz, Leopold Kramer

How do you know you're seeing a star on screen? When 18-year-old Hedy Kiesler shocked international audiences in this Czech avant-garde classic, Hollywood knew they had to have her. She had "it," and this is the best, unfiltered look at what someone saw in her.

2. Algiers (1938) - Gaby

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• Director: John Cromwell
• Writer: John Howard Lawson (Screenplay), James M. Cain (Additional Dialogue), Henri La Barthe (Novel)
• Cast: Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, Sigrid Gurie, Joseph Calleia, Gene Lockhart

This title was Lamarr's American film debut. She plays the glamorous Gaby, a Parisian tourist seducing a jewel thief. Lamar became so popular in this movie that her hairstyle caught on. The film's atmosphere directly inspired Warner Bros. when greenlighting Casablanca.

3. Boom Town (1940) - Karen Vanmeer

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• Director: Jack Conway
• Writer: John Lee Mahin (Screenplay), James Edward Grant (Story)
• Cast: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr

Clark Gable was a massive star, so it was a vote of confidence that they cast Hedy Lamarr opposite him in this movie. But the fun thing is we also got to see her doing comedy, which proved she was funny as well as dramatic.

4. Ziegfeld Girl (1941) - Sandra Kolter

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• Director: Robert Z. Leonard
• Writer: Marguerite Roberts, Sonya Levien
• Cast: James Stewart, Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr, Tony Martin, Philip Dorn

Lamarr was the kind of actress who could do it all, including musicals. This movie is probably most famous for its elaborate costumes, but it's one of those unsung stories about beauty and talent and the sacrifices we make for stardom.

5. Experiment Perilous (1944) - Allida Bederaux

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• Director: Jacques Tourneur
• Writer: Warren Duff (Screenplay), Margaret Carpenter (Novel)
• Cast: Hedy Lamarr, George Brent, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, Carl Esmond

Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past, Cat People) directed this Victorian psychological thriller where Lamarr is truly the star of the show. She plays a woman with a controlling husband who is planning what to do next. It's all dread and gothic lighting.

6. The Strange Woman (1946) - Jenny Hager

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• Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
• Writer: Herb Meadow (Screenplay), Ben Ames Williams (Novel)
• Cast: Hedy Lamarr, George Sanders, Louis Hayward, Gene Lockhart

Lamarr co-produced this independent film noir to take control of her career and to give herself a role that was complicated and contained depth. She got a meaty role that allowed her to play in film noir and gave her a dark complexity that studios just wouldn't touch.

7. Samson and Delilah (1949) - Delilah

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• Director: Cecil B. DeMille
• Writer: Fredric M. Frank, Harold Lamb, Jesse Lasky Jr., Vladimir Jabotinsky
• Cast: Hedy Lamarr, Victor Mature, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Henry Wilcoxon

This was a massive hit for its time, a biblical epic from Cecil B. DeMille that blew the Technicolor doors of Hollywood. It's her highest-grossing movie, and she kind of plays the hits here as the gorgeous Philistine temptress Delilah. Lamarr dominates the screen and kind of makes you play with her decisions, even though she's the bad guy.

Summing It All Up

Careers are a funny thing; in Hollywood, they can come from nothing and launch you to everything. For Lamarr, her legacy is not just being a person who helped us defeat fascism, but also being an actress who took fate into her own hands and played roles that made her proud.

What titles should I add to this list?