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Hollywood rape scandal documentary has US Sundance fest abuzz
2007-01-26
One of the most notorious yet long-forgotten scandals in Hollywood history involving the brutal rape of a teenage chorus girl is back in the spotlight at the Sundance Film Festival. US writer-director David Stenn's "Girl 27" lifts the lid on the rape of Patricia Douglas at a wild party organised by studio giants Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at a Los Angeles ranch in 1937. Douglas, then a starry-eyed 17-year-old, was one of around 120 chorus girls bused into a party for MGM sales staff at Culver City, where 500 cases of whiskey and champagne were on hand to supply around 300 male revellers. Stenn's film, which includes hitherto unseen archival footage and interviews with Douglas and others involved in the case, explores the attack and the subsequent cover-up. "MGM took her to a studio doctor who told her it never happened, they took her home and told her it never happened," Stenn told AFP. "She went to the district attorney who said it never happened. And then she went public. She didn't want another girl to go through what she had gone through," said Stenn. Douglas was raped after she and the other chorus girls were effectively presented to the MGM salesmen as "party favors," Stenn said. "They were put in skimpy cowgirl outfits and heavy camera makeup and bused to a remote location with no phones or transportation," he said. "The men took a look at these over-made-up, under-dressed girls and assumed 'These are our party favors.'" The party was later described by a waiter who was on duty as "the worst, the wildest, and the rottenest I have ever seen." A grand jury failed to indict Douglas' alleged attacker, a 36-year-old salesman. But in an unusual legal twist, she pursued justice by filing a lawsuit against Ross and studio executives in the Los Angeles Superior Court. When that case was tossed out, Douglas went to the Federal Court, arguing that her civil rights had been violated. Stenn said he believed the case was eventually dropped because Douglas' mother and legal guardian was given hush money. Stenn, who had stumbled on the case while researching a biography about the legendary Jean Harlow, eventually tracked down Douglas, nearing her nineties and living a lonely existence in a dingy apartment. "It was stunning but it was very heart-breaking because she hung up on me," said Stenn of his initial call to Douglas. "She proceeded to hang up on me for many months after. The film details the course of our relationship. It's a very curious position to be in to call someone and know their deepest darkest secret. Here's a woman who hasn't left her home in decades," said Stenn. Stenn, a former writer for television shows including "Hill Street Blues," says it took years to win Douglas's before she finally opened up about the scandal. His movie is based on an article he wrote about the case for Vanity Fair magazine. "The movie charts the course of her transformation from going from someone who was ashamed of what happened and that's why she wouldn't go out, to someone who learned to be proud of herself and come to understand that what she had done was not only remarkable but unique. "There's never been another woman who has sued MGM or any movie studio or anything like this and certainly no one who took her case all the way to Federal Court," he added. The Sundance Independent Film Festival, launched by Robert Redford in 1981, runs until January 28.
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