Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: First cast as a 15-year-old teenager in a film role that would earn her the nickname of "the Sweater Girl," Lana Turner became a Hollywood sex symbol and went on to a film and television career that lasted from the 1930s until the 1980s. Behind the scenes, however, Turner's life wasn't so glamorous, filled with failed and abusive romances, including to Johnny Stompanato, a mobster working for crime boss Mickey Cohen, a relationship that eventually ended with Stompanato dead on her bedroom floor and her teenage daughter, Cheryl, willingly taking the blame for the stabbing.  This non-fiction book presents an account of Turner's life, how it reached that pivotal point and the impact of the scandal on her career and mother/daughter relationship. Review:   A a classic movie fan, I was well-aware of both Lana Turner's film work and the scandal that nearly completely derailed her career. So, when I came across A Murder in Hollywood at the library, I deci...

Synopsis: A small Utah resort town is rocked when a guest, Marsha Morgan, is found murdered at a pool party. As the sheriff conducts his investigation, more people are murdered, leaving him with plenty of questions and even more suspects. Who's in it? The movie stars Lex Barker , Anne Bancroft , John Dehner , Ron Randell and Marie Windsor. Review: I came across The Girl in Black Stockings on Amazon Prime a couple nights ago and since it's been a while since I've watched a classic murder mystery, I flagged it and finally had a chance to watch it this morning. At first, I thought it was going to be a simple-to-solve (aka boring) mystery. Instead, it wound up being an entertaining film with a lot of surprises. The thing I liked most about this movie is there wasn't any clear suspect. There were multiple people connected to the original victim, Morgan, but they either had alibis, zero motive or, in the case of the lodge owner, Edmund Parry (Randell), confined to a whee...