Dangerous Curves Atop Hollywood Heels: The Lives, Careers, and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen by Michael G. Ankerich | Book Review

Dangerous Curves Atop Hollywood Heels: The Lives, Careers, and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen by Michael G. Ankerich
Genres: Biography
Original Publication Date: 2010
Source: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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In Dangerous Curves Atop Hollywood Heels, author Michael G. Ankerich examines the lives, careers, and disappointments of 14 silent film actresses, who, despite the odds against them and warnings to stay in their hometowns, came to Hollywood to make names for themselves in the movies.

Dangerous Curves Atop Hollywood Heels: The Lives, Careers, and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen are about the tragic stories of now-forgotten actresses of the silent film era.

Dangerous Curves Tells The Tragic Stories of Silent Screen Actresses

Each actress gets a chapter devoted solely to her.

I’ve read about some of these actresses before (Ayres, Prevost, La Marr). Some of them I had never heard of before (Hawley, Ricksen).

I found it fascinating to find out what happened to these women. Silent actors faced a dilemma because Hollywood began transitioning away from silent films to “talkies.”

Some actors struggled to adapt to talking pictures, whether because of a poor voice or bad acting technique.

The stock market crashed right during that transition, and some of these women were wiped out financially.

Some of them struggled with drug or alcohol addictions.  They also suffered from untreated mental illnesses, at a time when these conditions were little understood.

When their careers crashed, their stocks failed, their youth and beauty started fading, and they were left broke and unemployed.

Others were simply incredibly unlucky, and a couple of the actresses profiled in this book managed to have somewhat normal lives after their fame faded away.

Some of these are unbearably tragic and hard to read. It is actually sadder to read about the ones who weren’t self-destructive and died through no fault of their own – Martha Mansfield was killed in a horrifying fire, and little Lucille Ricksen died at age 14, possibly from tuberculosis.

Final Analysis

I’m glad that Michael Ankerich wrote this book and really glad that he chose some silent movie actresses that have been neglected by other authors.

There have been plenty of books and articles written about Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson, for example. It is about time these actresses get their due. If you are a silent film fan, I heartily recommend this book.

The author of the book writes about it here.

If you enjoyed this review, please read my review of Ann Harding: Cinema’s Gallant Lady.

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