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Frances Farmer

The Life and Films of a Troubled Star
by Peter Shelley
Frances Farmer: The Life and Films of a Troubled Star. McFarland. Mar. 2011. c.260p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780786447459. pap. $38. FILM
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Beautiful and talented, actress Frances Farmer is best remembered for the horrific backstory of alcoholism, mental illness, and a lengthy stay in a sanitarium, marked by lurid tales of the filthy conditions and rumors of a lobotomy. Considering this a case of a "beautiful woman sabotaged," Shelley, a library assistant and playwright in Australia, reviews Farmer's conflicts with the studios, controversial left-wing associations, arrests, relationships with her domineering mother and onetime lover playwright Clifford Odets, and, after her breakdown, a measure of stability but only limited professional success. Much of this material is familiar. The book's best-executed section considers Farmer's image in the popular media, notably the 1982 Jessica Lange film, Frances, and Farmer's famous 1958 appearance on the TV show This Is Your Life.
VERDICT Rather than an in-depth and insightful biography, this is a brief, just-the-facts rehash of Farmer's life plus lengthy descriptions of Farmer's mostly inconsequential 1930s–40s films. Dedicated readers may wish to consult this along with Farmer's possibly ghostwritten autobiography, Will There Really Be a Morning?, but this subject deserves a more penetrating study.
Reviewed by Stephen Rees, formerly with Levittown Regional Lib., PA , Feb 01, 2011
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