Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Annette Bening delivers a powerhouse performance as sultry Gloria Grahame. Back in the 1940s and ‘50s, Grahame starred in the film noir hits Crossfire, Sudden Fear, The Big Heat, In a Lonely Place and The Bad and the Beautiful, for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar (fans also remember her from It’s a Wonderful Life, The Greatest Show on Earth and Oklahoma!). Obsessed with her appearance, Grahame underwent extensive plastic surgery, habitually fixing nonexistent flaws. Her volatile temperament alienated even the most admiring directors, and she courted scandalous gossip with four disastrous marriages. The day after divorcing actor Stanley Clements, she married director Nicholas Ray, a relationship that ended disastrously after Ray found Gloria in bed with Tony, his 13-year-old son by a previous marriage. She then married and divorced producer Cy Howard before marrying her stepson, now 23-year-old Tony Ray. In 1979, Gloria was onstage in England when she met Peter Turner (Jamie Bell), who was 28 years younger. Peter was besotted, and Gloria spent the last days of her life at his family’s home in Liverpool, where she died from recurring breast cancer in 1981 at the age of 57. This is their love story—just theirs, with only occasional flashbacks (unfortunately). Inspired by Turner’s titular 1984 memoir, director Paul McGuigan’s subtly poignant bio-pic—also featuring Julie Walters and Vanessa Redgrave—effectively chronicles another Tinseltown tragedy. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Paul McGuigan, producer Barbara Broccoli, and author Peter Turner, a Q&A with McGuigan, Turner, and costars Annette Bening and Jamie Bell (31 min.), the music video and behind-the-scenes featurette on “You Shouldn’t Look at Me That Way” by Elvis Costello (6 min.), an Elvis Costello performance and conversation (4 min.), and a segment with Bening on film subject Gloria Grahame (2 min.). Bottom line: a solid extras package for an engaging Tinseltown bio-pic.] (S. Granger)