Hollywood rape scandal documentary has US Sundance fest abuzz

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2007

PARK CITY, United States (AFP) — One of the most notorious yet long-forgotten scandals in Hollywood history involving the brutal rape of a teenage chorus girl is back in the spotlight at the Sundance Film Festival.

US writer-director David Stenn's "Girl 27" lifts the lid on the rape of Patricia Douglas at a wild party organised by studio giants Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at a Los Angeles ranch in 1937.

Douglas, then a starry-eyed 17-year-old, was one of around 120 chorus girls bused into a party for MGM sales staff at Culver City, where 500 cases of whiskey and champagne were on hand to supply around 300 male revellers.

Stenn's film, which includes hitherto unseen archival footage and interviews with Douglas and others involved in the case, explores the attack and...