Grace Kelly: American Princess

Fairytales don't always have happy endings, as illustrated by the tragic death of Princess Grace in a car crash on a winding country road outside Monaco on September 14, 1982 at the age of 52. To an outsider, Kelly's life truly seemed charmed: born into a devout, wealthy Irish Catholic family in Philadelphia, her wholesome, all-American good looks led to modeling jobs, numerous appearances on early live television dramas, and finally her co-starring big break opposite Gary Cooper in High Noon (1952). Kelly had the good fortune to work with top directors and leading men (William Holden, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Cary Grant), and her meteoric rise to stardom took only a few years, but her film career ended suddenly in the mid-1950s when she met and married Prince Rainier of Monaco. Part of the Lifetime Channel's Intimate Portrait series, this documentary examines Kelly's fire-and-ice screen appeal, her fascination with older men, the media frenzy over Monaco's "wedding of the century," and the Princess's hope to claim a meaningful role for herself after her Hollywood career. Co-workers and friends wistfully recall her warmth and charm, reflecting on her legacy and a truncated film career that now seems forever frozen in the 1950s. Grace Kelly: American Princess maintains a respectful tone, but at a cost of a creeping blandness that sets in when the video glosses over Grace and Rainier's messy relationships with their adult daughters Caroline and Stephanie, and minimizes the Princess's feelings of isolation and unhappiness with palace life in later years. Quality film clips--instead of the same old grainy footage boosted from trailers--would also have added freshness to this familiar story that, in spite of its shortcomings, is still likely to have an appreciative audience, making this a strong optional purchase, especially for those who don't already own Grace Kelly: Hollywood Princess (VL-5/00). Aud: P. (S. Rees)