In December 1951, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Joan Bennett, was involved in one of the biggest criminal scandals in cinema. In a fit of jealousy, her husband, producer Walter Wanger, shot the actress’ manager, Jennings Lang, twice. Walter was arrested, Jennings recovered, and both men were “pardoned” by Joan, however, she never had her reputation recovered from a poorly explained story marked by the machismo of the time.

All of that content is now being recounted on the Love is a Crime podcast, with stars like Zoey Deschanel voicing Joan and Jon Hamm voicing Walter, among other stars. Certainly material is ready to become a series, right away. The script and direction of the podcast have a family strength: the granddaughter and director of Joan and Walter, Vanessa Hope is responsible for the production, which also features historian and podcaster Karina Longworth. As they point out, one of film noir’s biggest stars played one of the biggest crimes in real life too.

There are few weekly episodes and you need to master English, but it’s a return to the so-called “golden time” of the film industry.

Joan Bennett, a star

Born in 1910, part of a family of artists, Joan Bennett made her film debut at the time of silent films, when she was a child but counts as having officially started her career on stage at the age of 18. She quickly made waves in Hollywood for her beauty and talent, starring in films like Puttin’ on the Ritz and Moby Dick when she was still in her early 20s. She was in the first version of Brave Women, around the same time that she met and married Walter Wanger (her 3rd husband).

By darkening her hair, Joan created a new screen persona and spun off into more blockbusters, now as a femme fatale. She was a finalist for Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and became a legend in Fritz Lang‘s noir classic The Woman in the Window, the first of several with the director.

Entering the 1950s, Joan was a respected and sought-after actress. Everything would change in a single afternoon.

The crime

Jennings Lang had been representing Joan for 12 years when the two met on that fateful afternoon of December 13, 1951, to discuss business.

Joan left her car parked near the corners of Santa Monica Boulevard and Rexford Drive and caught a ride with the businessman to the meeting. Walter, passing through the street, identified his wife’s Cadillac, and half an hour later, he was in the same place, he decided to park and wait for her. Hours later, Joan and Jennings returned to the parking lot talking normally. Neither of them noticed Walter, hiding just a few steps away. In a fit of jealousy, the producer walked up to them and shot the agent twice: in the leg and in the groin. Upon recognizing her husband, Joan told him to move away and he threw the gun inside his wife’s car. Since it was close to the Beverly Hills Police Station, Walter was arrested on the spot. Jennings was taken to the hospital, where he recovered.

In his testimony, Walter accused Jennings of having an affair with Joan, which Joan vehemently denied. According to her, her husband was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because he was going through financial problems. Released by the police after posting bail to respond freely, Walter and Joan separated, but Joan refused to file for divorce. What’s more, she made a statement where she hoped her husband wouldn’t take “too much blame” for the attack. The defense used the thesis of temporary insanity and Walter spent four months in prison, but when he returned, his career resumed success. Joan, on the other hand, lived the opposite.

Suspected of being unfaithful, her in-demand star quickly faded into oblivion, making just five films after the incident. Basically, she was blacklisted. Not even friends like Humphrey Bogart fighting over her managed to reverse the situation. “I wish I had pulled the trigger myself,” she would have lamented years later.

In 1955, Joan’s career shifted to theater and TV, but the scandal was never forgotten. She and Walter were together until 1965.

Joan died in 1990 after a cardiac arrest. She was 80 years old.

The podcast

In 10 episodes (there are already three available), Vanessa not only recovers her grandmother’s memory but also recalls the difficult relationships in Hollywood. For her, addressing the scandal from the perspective of time and society today allows seeing history from another perspective. She’s addictive and a history lesson. Every episode counts.

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