Jeanne Eagels was a Broadway star of the 1920s whose short and lurid life became the stuff of legend before ultimately being totally forgotten. There was a heavily fictionalized 1957 Kim Novak biopic (appropriately titled ‘Jeanne Eagels’) which delved into some–if not all–of the dark aspects of her life which included drug addiction, alcoholism and rampant diva-ism, which got her blacklisted on Broadway toward the end of her career. This happened to coincide time-wise with the advent of talking pictures and so, to keep busy and in the public’s view, Eagels did what many Broadway stars of the ‘legitimate stage’ turned their noses up to; she agreed to make ‘talkies’. Her stage presence was said to be electric and her acting unlike anything others had seen at the time. Both of her films were immensely successful. And of course, being movies they gave the public across America the change to witness Eagel’s one of kind performances which had previously been seen mostly by New York theatergoers.

Now, performance styles change and most of what was considered good one-hundred years ago now looks pretty punk to us (to use a phrase from one-hundred years ago). When we watch early talkies we need to abandon our sense of what ‘good acting’ is and submit to the often ludicrous styles of another era. I (and others who love very old films) tend to find it charmingly antiquated and an interesting view of a long-vanished world. But Jeanne Eagels acting is actually quite a revelation. She’s a very modern actress, with a gripping intensity and believability that would be judged now, I think, to be as good as acting can get. Watch the above scene from “The Letter”, shot in 1928 at the Astoria Studios in Long Island City. It’s the mad confession of a murderess and personally I find that I can’t take my eyes off of her. The movie was released in April, 1929. By then Eagels had shot her second and last movie, ‘Jealousy’, which was released on September 13th of that year. ‘Jealousy’ is now considered a lost film. But ‘The Letter’ exists in all its 65 minute running time glory. (It was remade eleven years later as a Bette Davis vehicle, directed by William Wyler).

During the peak of her success, Eagels began abusing drugs and alcohol. She went to several sanitarioms in an effort to kick her dependency but by the mid-1920s, she had begun using heroin. At the time ‘Jealousy’ was released, Eagels underwent eye surgery– she was also suffering from breathing problems and neuritis. After a ten-day stay, Eagels returned to her apartment on Park Avenue. On October 3, 1929, Eagels and her secretary walked to the Park Avenue Hospital where Eagels had an appointment. While talking to the doctor, she began having convulsions and died shortly thereafter. The assistant chief medical examiner who performed Eagels’ autopsy concluded that she died of ‘alcoholic psychosis’. The medical examiner stated that while Eagels had not consumed alcohol in the two days preceding her death, she had been “acting strangely” and suffering from hallucinations three or four days before she died. Toxicology reports revealed that Eagels still had alcohol in her organs when she died in addition to heroin and chloral hydrate, a sedative that Eagels regularly took to sleep.  One-hundred years we have an hour of Jeanne Eagels demonstrating her stunning talent captured on film. ‘The Letter’ was one of the best thought of early talkies and Eagles won a posthumous Oscar.