A Touch of Stardust

Mixing fact with fiction, Alcott offers a stardusted look at Hollywood's Golden Years, when movie stars were glamorous, amorous, and scandalous--shocking and delighting the public. Cassandra Campbell's engaging performance introduces Julie, an appealing ingenue who arrives in Hollywood from Indiana, hoping to become a screenwriter. Julie settles for a job at the studio filming GONE WITH THE WIND but is promptly fired. Campbell makes her sound plucky and determined, and when Julie encounters celebrities, Campbell is wonderfully understated, never resorting to theatrics. When Julie is hired as personal assistant to Carole Lombard, Clark Gable's brainy, beautiful, outrageous ladylove, Campbell offers a Julie-eyed view of the sizzling Gable-Lombard affair and the electricity between Gable/Rhett and Vivien Leigh/Scarlett in GWTW. Campbell's interpretation makes Alcott's intriguing speculations feel right. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine