Produced in 2007 but more timely than ever, GIRL 27 is based on "It Happened One Night..At MGM," a Vanity Fair article also by Stenn. Both unearth the long-buried, still-shocking story of Patricia Douglas, an underage dancer tricked into working a private MGM stag party where, trying to flee, she was brutally raped by a studio salesman. When she sought justice by going public and suing the world's most powerful movie studio -- unprecedented acts in 1937 -- Douglas made nationwide headlines but faced a smear campaign of threats, perjury, and shaming meant to destroy her. The trauma sent Douglas into hiding for the rest of her life; "We had her killed," MGM henchman Eddie Mannix boasted. Though his words weren't literal, their meaning was clear: no woman ever accused MGM of rape again.
Expunged from the historical record (prior to Stenn's painstaking research, googling Douglas or her landmark legal case yielded nothing) this heroic woman would have vanished if not for Jacqueline Onassis, Stenn's editor at Doubleday who encouraged him to pursue the story. Years of detective work followed, culminating with Stenn's amazing discovery of Douglas herself, who granted him the only interview she ever gave. Douglas died in 2003, vindicated at last after seven decades.
GIRL 27 premiered as an official selection in the Sundance Film Festival and was hailed as "compelling" by the Los Angeles Timesand "riveting" by the New York Post. "A dark secret of Hollywood's past in (a) fascinating film," noted film critic and historian Leonard Maltin. "What an amazing story!"
"Patricia Douglas made rape a civil rights issue," says Stenn, "a legal and historic first. She's a pioneer, the Rosa Parks of rape culture."
"Today women are stepping forward to tell their story in numbers; for Patricia, there was no "me, too" -- she was all by herself, the first."
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