Girl 27 The Rape of Patricia Douglas and the Cover up by MGM

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Girl 27

Girl 27 is a 2007 documentary film by writer/director David Stenn about the 1937 rape of dancer and sometime movie extra Patricia Douglas (1917–2003) at an M-G-M exhibitors' convention, the front-page news stories that followed, and the studio's subsequent cover-up of the crime. Also covered in the film are a similar assault on singer Eloise Spann and her subsequent suicide, and the better-known scandal involving actress Loretta Young and her "adopted" daughter Judy Lewis, the product of her affair with Clark Gable during the production of The Call of the Wild.

David Stenn uses first-person interviews and vintage film footage and music to explore the political power of movie studios in 1930s Hollywood, as well as public attitudes toward sexual assault that discouraged victims from coming forward. The filmmaker's dogged pursuit of Douglas and their resulting friendship is a consistent theme throughout.

Renewed interest in the MeToo movement

The revelations regarding sexual misconduct by certain powerful men in the entertainment industry that received widespread media coverage beginning in late 2017 brought renewed attention to Girl 27, which earned fresh recognition for the documentary evidence it provides of the perennial existence of this systemic problem. In a New York Times op-ed piece in January 2018, Stenn made the point that "Injustice can thrive only in silence, and finally the story of Patricia Douglas and others like her now resonates in Hollywood and beyond."Actresses Rose McGowan and Jessica Chastain, both prominent figures in the #MeToo movement, have commented favorably about Girl 27 on Twitter, with Chastain stating that the film "should be required viewing for anyone in the film industry.

You can find the Documentary for Purchase on Amazon or Amazon Prime Video or if you subscribe to the Dox Channel available for $2.99 a month on Amazon Video. 

Read the Vanity Fair article here

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