While this is a very important story, I sure felt uncomfortable watching "Girl 27". It was NOT because the film is about rape but because HOW the film was made that really bothered me. Let me back up a bit and explain: Back in the 1930s, a young woman, Patricia Douglas, went public after being raped by an MGM employee during a studio-run party. However, for some reason, nothing ever came of the case. Why? Because MGM was the most masterful studio when it came to covering up crimes--and the Douglas rape was NOT an isolated incident. While the film never mentions it, the studio 'clean-up crew' sanitized crime scenes and the truth will never be known about such scandals as the suspicious deaths of Jean Harlow's husband and Ted Healy and others.This rape was a horrible thing...simple horrible. However, I also felt that the filmmaker, David Stenn, was a simply horrible person. What right did he have churning up the past the way he did? For example, another similar rape victim was dead--so Stenn went to the woman's son and talked about this!! Think about it---a stranger coming to you and telling you he wants to talk about the time his mom was raped!! Then, with Patricia Douglas, she was NOT initially interested in talking with him but he admits relentlessly pushing her--calling her, sending her flowers and even showing up at her home to get her to tell her story!! It seemed like he was stalking her. In many ways, this was like he was victimizing these folks all over again--especially since Ms. Douglas fought him for some time until she finally agreed to the interviews. He should be ashamed of himself. Sure, rape is EVIL--but so it profiting from others' misery and not allowing them silence if that is what they choose. Jerk.As far as the rest of the film goes, it was a mixed bag. Although much of it was interesting, much of it also was direction-less and poorly constructed. For example, TONS of interviews were used with irrelevant sources. One of these was Peggy Montgomery. Although she did some work as an extra as an adult, she was the biggest child star of her day and interviewing her seemed out of place other than her talking a bit about the hostile environment in Hollywood for women. Also, he interviewed Loretta Young's daughter about her parentage (it turned out she was Clark Gable's illegitimate daughter--which she discovered late in life). But WHAT DO THIS HAVE TO DO WITH PATRICIA AND HER SAD STORY?! Sure, both situations did have a bit to do with the Hollywood propaganda machine--but so what?! There was also one interview, though somewhat interesting, which also seemed inappropriate. The filmmaker interviewed the children of an MGM employee who lied at the Douglas trial. What bothered me is that his kids admitted he lied but then made some excuses for this. Sick and unnecessary in some ways--and a way to re-victimize Douglas.Overall, while this film said it was about the atrocious actions of MGM towards Ms. Douglas, the film seemed much more about Stenn and what was good for him and his career. A sad, sad thing to force a woman to talk about her rape in order to make a film. Entertaining but awful as well as morally suspect.

Girl 27 (2007) **** (out of 4) Rather sad documentary taking a look at a 1937 MGM case where Patricia Douglas was hired to appear in a movie at Hal Roach Studios but instead she was raped by a man and the crime was eventually covered up. This case made headlines at the time as Douglas was attacked but then the case pretty much went away for over six decades until director David Stenn heard about the case and was able to locate the woman. I've seen quite a few documentaries on MGM and it's clear looking at the studio today that they owned Los Angeles and that they weren't afraid to do harmful things (look at Judy Garland) or cover things up. This story here is just downright shocking because it makes everything so clear that MGM was calling the shots on everything and they were strong enough to have cops, politicians and lawyers in their pockets. I think what's so sad about this movie is the interview with the then 85-year-old Douglas who is clearly still haunted by the events that happened to her when she was 17. Seeing how this event damaged her life is just sad and seeing and hearing from her daughter isn't any more happy. The film has a very low-budget that does effect it somewhat but it never takes away from the power of the story. I also really liked how the director shows how the system worked back in the day and this includes showing how Douglas was being attacked by the media while Loretta Young was allowed to lie about an adoption when everyone knew that Clark Gable and her had the kid. Their daughter, Judy Lewis, is interviewed here as is Peggy Montgomery (aka Baby Peggy) who talks about the trouble that girls found themselves in at the studio. GIRL 27 is high drama from start to finish and I think it's an important story to tell no matter how ugly that story is.

I have rather mixed feelings about this movie. It brings up an interesting, forgotten scandal, which I give it credit for. But I felt the movie was always straining a little too hard to be interesting, as though the filmmaker knew he really only had a 40-minute short but was determined to get a feature length film out of it.The movie is a mix of a documentary about the rape and a documentary about uncovering the rape, and I found that an interesting, fairly successful approach. The various film clips range from relevant to flippant. The filmmaker's worst instincts came out during the interviews with the victim. Tossing in film clips earlier made a certain amount of sense, but doing the same thing during her painful answers felt gimmicky and insensitive and just took away from the power of the scene. Sometimes you have to be willing to let a person or a situation speak for itself, but that doesn't happen in this movie.

A documentary that could have used a lot less of the documenter, David Stenn spends far to much time on camera and does, what is to me the death kiss of documentaries. Stenn's editing forces his audience to see thing his way and no other, to feel the emotions he feels and to come to all the same conclusions he does. This is in no way anything new to documentaries, Michael Moore for example is the very master of this, now to be fair, does that mean these film makers viewpoints are wrong, no not at all, sometimes they are right on with mine but for heaven sakes let me come to my own opinion honestly. Give me both sides of a story fairly as best as possible and let me use my brain to decide which I believe. Now, I do realize in the case of Girl 27 there is no real way to show both sides, and to listen to Patricia Douglas talk I have no doubt in my mind that she is an honest woman, but it degrades her to surround her story with unfair edits of MGM convention footage with sinister music overplaying. Also on a side not I found the story about Loretta Young & Clark Gable's daughter to be heartbreaking, to hear Judy Lewis tell her story was one of the saddest things I have ever heard, it made me loose a lot of respect for those two actors. Anyway, David Stenn, let Patricia Douglas tell her story, realize what you have in that, it is all your film needs. The bravery of that women to do what she did in both her situation and during that time period is amazing, and for her to go in front of a camera and re-tell that to the world is to be admired.