Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story

Jackie Collins was destined to live under the shadows of her old sister Joan Collins.

While Jackie did not make it as an actress despite plastic surgery. She made it as a writer. Even as a kid in the late 1970s I was aware of her through the film adaptation of books such as The Stud (starring Joan) and the The World is full of married men.

The movies were soft core mainly because her books were full of sex. Jackie Collins was never going to rival Graham Greene but she knew how to spin a yarn and fill it with the sexual exploits of the bronze and the beautiful.

This was a warts and all documentary showing footage that Jackie shot over the years. There was sibling rivalry, domineering men. Jackie's and Joan's father certainly ruled the roost in his household.

Despite appearing to be a strong woman. Promoting female empowerment in her books. Jackie married two unsuitable men. Only her second husband, a nightclub owner showered her with love and even moved to America in the 1980s as Jackie wanted to have a serious crack at America as a writer.

This was surprisingly in depth and mischievous. It helps that family members appear to be candid and that includes Joan.

Jackie Collins sold a lot of thrashy books in the 1980s. By the 90s that type of books were saturating the market by others, including Joan.

There is a clip from the British discussion show Kilroy where both men and women slate her books. Still Jackie persevered, she was a tough woman and knew how to sell her books.

Even close to death she made one final visit to Britain to see old friends and family. She even made a few promotional appearances on television.

I'm not a fan of Jackie Collins' writing style (the actual prose - not critiquing the stories themselves because I don't read the stories due to not caring for the writing itself) BUT, BUT I'm a fan of who she was - a bold trailblazer who wrote the stories she wanted to write! You have to respect that whether you personally like her writing or not.

The documentary was interesting but it didn't do a good job of anchoring events to the timeline. It jumps around a lot so you may find yourself looking up info online to better understand the chronology (I did). I also thought it was weird that early on the filmmakers made it seem like it was going to be a story about a woman who was so brave, bold, confident, and sexy in the public eye, but behind closed doors, they were going to show she was so broken and so different than the public image. Oh, the scandal! Except there was no scandal. Jackie Collins was human, which is to say she endured some tragedy and loss and had some insecurities and doubts. Like all humans do. But to accomplish what she did time and time again shows she WAS a brave, bold, confident, and sexy woman. It was like the filmmakers wanted to undercut that somehow by implying that she was a mess behind the scenes. I didn't see a mess. I saw a complex human. Hats off to Jackie Collins, the legend AND the woman.

PS. Jackie was also VERY pretty, both before & after plastic surgery. Her grumpy, rude "friend" who kept saying things like how Jackie had a lot things to "fix" sounded like a very sad, sour grapes person. Definitely not a true friend. More like a jealous frenemy who wished she'd been as cool as Jackie.

A very good, if unoriginal documentary of a fascinating woman who for a writer had movie star celebrity. If she was riddled with secrets and anxieties, beyond the usual stuff, it didn't seem so. She was lucky to have a very supportive husband and a very good work ethic. I don't know if her novels were groundbreaking or helped women as so many claim but her easy to read, sexy books were obviously loved by millions. She seemed like a decent soul, much more real than her sister who always seems "on". And seeing her out selling books on talk shows a week before she died, so thin, did make me realize she was a champion.

The dialog and background music were often at the same level making the dialog very hard to hear for an old person (yes, I had my hearing aids in). Background music should be in the background, not in the foreground. Other than than that complaint, the show was good.

I only ever read one of her books. Out of curiosity to see what all the fuss was about. I was NOT impressed and I am no prude. She wrote that particular book from the male sexual side of things which was a huge disappointment. I suppose it was ground-breaking she was writing so graphically and having independent women as her heroes.

My curiosity in watching this was in the sibling relationship she had with her sister and their origins. A famously beautiful sister and the comparatively plain (quite attractive actually) writer who invests in plastic surgery to make herself prettier.

Interesting when the tables are turned after many years and she becomes more famous than Joan.

Interviews are fairly flat apart from those with Joan. Her daughters are candid on her subsequent marriage after the "love of her life" Oscar dies.

Her perfectly crafted persona was a sham, but then again that is nothing new for performers of any kind.

5/5 I'd like to see a film about the sisters. Their father sounds like a monster.