Since Hollywood’s beginnings, it has been a place of glitz and glamour, a town where people go to make their dreams come true. But it is also a notorious setting for scandal, a town where those same dreams often crash and burn in spectacular fashion.
If Hollywood scandal is your thing, you can’t do better than to read filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s tell-all bookHollywood Babylon, which reveals decades of Hollywood’s dirty laundry during the first half of the 20th century. But if you need your fix right now, here are ten fantastic documentaries that focus on the stories that rocked Hollywood.
10The Celluloid Closet (1995)
Based on the 1981 book by Vito Russo,The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, this 1995 documentary explored both the lives of LGBTQ people working in Hollywood and the portrayals of LGBTQ people onscreen over the years, especially seen with coded gay characters after the censorship of the Hays Code, and up until the 1990s, when LGBTQ characters were generally portrayed with unkind stereotypes. The movie isnarrated by Lily Tomlin, and features interviews with a host of Hollywood luminaries, as well as a bevy of clips from myriad movies showing the evolution of Hollywood’s attitudes towards the LGBTQ community over the years from the 1930s to the 1990s. The film won accolades for its fight against homophobia.
9The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
This 2002 film is based on the memoir of the same name by Robert Evans, who also narrated the film. Evans began his career as an actor before becoming a producer and studio executive, a career derailed by a cocaine bust and an incident known as the Cotton Club murder. He changed the fortunes of Paramount Pictures in the 1960s with movies likeThe GodfatherandRosemary’s Baby, going on to produce more hits independently, includingMarathon ManandUrban Cowboy. But his career was first tainted by his at least tangential involvement in thekilling of Roy Radin, and then by a 1980 conviction for cocaine trafficking. Add seven marriages (one to actress Ali McGraw), and you’ve got a documentary packed with scandal and intrigue.
8Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)
Whatever your thoughts on Roman Polanski, he’s a complicated character, having survived the Holocaust as a child when his parents did not, and being the husband of actress Sharon Tate, who was murdered by the Manson Family. This 2008 documentary deals with the sexual abuse case which saw Polanski arrested and charged with a number of serious sexual offenses against a 13-year-old girl.Polanski accepted a plea bargainbut subsequently fled the country, never to return to the United States (A follow-up film was released in 2013, also directed by Marina Zenovich, entitledRoman Polanski: Odd Man Out, which details Polanski’s subsequent successful fight against being extradited from Switzerland.) The film received largely positive reviews, and includes interviews with Polanski’s young victim, as well as many players involved in the trial.
7Jane Fonda in Five Acts (2018)
Jane Fonda was born into an acting family, and took the same career path as her father Henry and brother Peter, becoming a popular girl-next-door character before branching out into a fitness empire and a high-profile marriage. She also has been a political activist since the 1960s, involving herself in the Civil Rights movement, opposing the Vietnam War (getting herself the nickname ‘Hanoi Jane’), and fighting for feminism, among other causes. Her Vietnam activism got her the most publicity as well as the most criticism, drawing enough ire that she was effectively blacklisted from Hollywood for a period of time.
She was surveilled by the U.S. government, and once arrested for suspected drug trafficking, although it was proven that the pills found in her luggage were vitamins. The mugshot taken upon her arrest, fist raised, was used as a promotional poster for the documentary, which received acclaim for its portrayal of Fonda’s fascinating life and career.
6Untouchable (2019)
One of the biggest scandals ever to hit Hollywood was that of the tidal wave of sexual abuse allegations to hit Harvey Weinstein, for which he is now imprisoned, and this 2019 documentary interviews a number of the (more than 80) women who accused him of rape, assault, and sexual abuse. The case blew up in the media in 2017, when the story was broken by journalists atTheNew York TimesandThe New Yorker(for which both publications received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service), and was key in the viral effect of theMeToo hashtag. The film also sets the scene within the larger context of Weinstein’s rise to such a powerful position in Hollywood as an innovative producer along with his brother Bob, with whom he founded Miramax.
5Trumbo (2007)
Dalton Trumbo was the award-winning screenwriter ofRoman Holiday,Exodus,Spartacus, and more, who was blacklisted after refusing to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), one of the Hollywood Ten. This 2007 documentary was written by Trumbo’s son Christopher, and was based on his father’s letters, which in the film are performed by actors including Paul Giamatti, David Straithairn, Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson, and Donald Sutherland. Not only blacklisted, Trumbo was also imprisoned for almost a year for his refusal to testify, although in subsequent years he got around the blacklist by writing B-movies under an assumed name.
His career did not fully recover for years, though, when Otto Preminger hired him to write the script forExodusin 1960. Along with the readings of his letters, the documentary also includes footage from the HUAC hearings and Trumbo’s home movies.
Related:First Look at Bryan Cranston in Trumbo
4Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017)
The real scandal ofHedy Lamarris that she wasn’t truly appreciated during her lifetime, and this 2017 documentary aims to ensure that that mistake is corrected. During her Hollywood career, she was known as a brunette bombshell with a racy past: as a young actress in Austria, she starred in a film calledEcstasyin which she briefly appeared nude and simulated orgasm, which saw the film banned in the U.S. Lamarr fled a controlling husband, ending up first in London and then New York to pursue her acting career. While she was successful in Hollywood, co-starring with the likes of Clark Gable, Charles Boyer, and James Stewart, she could never quite escape that mysterious, slightly exotic, bombshell stereotype.
And then, of course, there is the other fascinating thing about Lamarr: she was an amateur inventor, and she and a friend, composer George Antheil, patented their own frequency hopping system. The film won a number of awards, and helped to restore Lamarr’s legacy to its proper place.
3Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind (2020)
One of Hollywood’s enduring mysteries is the tragic death of actress Natalie Wood: she was just 43 when she drowned during a 1981 boat trip with her husband, Robert Wagner, and actor Christopher Walken. It has never been determined exactly how Wood ended up in the water, or whether foul play was involved, but the boat’s captain alleged that Wagner and Wood had argued during the trip, and rumors have long swirled about Wagner’s involvement. Wood and Wagner were on their second marriage to each other, having first wed and separated in 1957 and 1961, respectively, before remarrying in 1972. The documentary did receive some criticism for pushing for Wagner’s innocence, and it’s interesting to note that one of the producers on the film was Wood’s older daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner.
Related:Are Any Rebel Without a Cause Cast Members Still Alive?
2Making Montgomery Clift (2018)
Montgomery Clift was without a doubt one of the finest actors of his generation, before succumbing to what an acting teacher referred to as “the longest suicide in Hollywood history”. This 2018 film examines his complicated life as a gay man who would not have been comfortably out during the ’40s and ’50s, when his star was at its height, but also attempts to dispel rumors that he was deeply uncomfortable with his sexuality. He starred in some of the biggest films of the era, includingFrom Here to Eternity,A Place in the Sun,Wild River, andThe Misfits, but a car accident during the filming ofRaintree Countyin 1956 left him badly injured and requiring numerous surgeries that left him reliant on drugs and alcohol to deal with the pain.
Although he lived another ten years, it was a period of long, slow decline that was captured in the movies he made over his last decade. While acknowledging the tragedies of Clift’s life, the film aims to also, through interviews with family and friends, show the more joyful sides to his life.
1Kid 90 (2021)
Punky Brewster star Soleil Moon Frye grew up in the spotlight, and while she did, she had a camera with her. That archival material makes up much of this 2021 documentary about what it was like to be a child star in the ’80s and ’90s, and the rest is interviews with a number of now-grown child stars, including Brian Austin Green, Balthazar Getty, and Stephen Dorff. Of the child stars captured in the original footage, including Sara Gilbert, Leonardo DiCaprio (who served as executive producer for the film), Mark Wahlberg, and Corey Feldman, a tragic number of them have since died due to suicide or drug overdoses. The film lays bare the truth that growing up in front of the camera is not necessarily all it’s cracked up to be, and that the real problems can start when the cameras stop rolling.
