For a time embodying the notion of a femme fatale, the alluring Gloria Grahame (1923–1981) will be forever remembered for her performances in films like Crossfire (1947), In a Lonely Place (1950), the Oscar-winning Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953).

Coinciding with a new biopic about Grahame’s last months, starring Annette Bening and adapted from the book Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Wootton hails her onscreen brilliance but reveals the controversial personal life of the four-times married sassy screen siren was as tumultuous and complex as the plots of the movies she appeared in.