The Mystery of Natalie Wood

The Mystery of Natalie Wood is a twopart 2004 madeforTV biographical film directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Partly based on the biographies Natasha the Biography of Natalie Wood written by Suzanne Finstad and Natalie amp R.J. written by Warren G. Harris, the film chronicles the life and career of actress Natalie Wood, from her early childhood in the 1940s until her untimely death in 1981.

While in high school, 15yearold Natalie falls in love with classmate Jimmy Williams Jason Smith, and starts to rebel against her mother. Afraid that Natalie will get pregnant, Maria manipulates Natalie into breaking up with Jimmy. Jimmy shoots himself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Heartbroken, Natalie severs all ties with her mother. By the mid1950s, she Waddell and her friend Margaret OBrien Sophie Mentis decide that Natalie should play the female lead in Rebel Without a Cause opposite James Dean Nick Carpenter. In order to get the role, she allows herself to be seduced by director Nicholas Ray Robert Taylor. Ray does not cast her initially, but her involvement in a car accident caused by Dennis Hopper Jarrod Dean, changes his mind. Simultaneously, she auditions for director Roy Tremaine Andy Rodoreda to please her mother he rapes her. Fearful for her career, she does not report the crime. She focuses on Rebel, which is a great success. Natalie achieves stardom and becomes romantically involved with many Hollywood men. Worried about her many boyfriends, Maria arranges a date with Robert Wagner Michael Weatherly, an actor whom Natalie has adored since she was a child.Shortly before they are married, Natalie promises her mother that she will not have children with Robert, even though she wants to do so. By 1959, she distances herself from Robert and regularly meets with a therapist to discuss her troubled childhood and her frustrated desire for motherhood. Meanwhile, she works on Splendor in the Grass in New York City with Elia Kazan Christopher Pate. The film requires nudity, and she becomes upset when her malformed wrist is exposed for the first time. Another scene requires her to swim, forcing her to confront a traumatizing fear of drowning instilled in her by her mother. She eventually overcomes her fear and celebrates with her costar Warren Beatty Matthew Settle. Wagner becomes jealous of her interaction with other men. While filming West Side Story, Robe

Source: Wikipedia