Hunting for Hazel Brooks
Part one of two on the long life and brief fame of a talented film noir starlet
This past week marked the 100th birthday of the legendary Lauren Bacall, a big deal and cause for celebration in these parts. But the Siren has also been researching another Classic Hollywood veteran who had a September centenary. Because as you may have noticed, the Siren is slightly obsessed with movie careers that promised great things, but didn’t work out that way.
Let us then take up the case of smoking-hot Hazel Brooks. Her main source of fame these days seems to be an astounding number of gorgeous photos scattered all over the Internet. It took Hazel a surprisingly long while to be cast as anything other than pretty background material. And her career screeched to a somewhat mysterious halt after just two significant featured roles: Alice in Body and Soul (1947), perhaps the ultimate boxing noir; and as the seductive Daphne in Douglas Sirk’s Sleep My Love (1948). Brooks is wonderful in both, unforgettable in fact, and she got great reviews. What happened? Spoiler alert: The Siren can’t tell you, not exactly. But she’s got some theories. On the way to finding out more about Hazel, the Siren came to like her, very much.