Nicknamed the "Sweater Girl," actress Lana Turner defined feminine sexuality for a generation during the World War II era. She portrayed an archetypal character in The Postman Always Rings Twice, the first American film version of a James Cain novel and a seminal film noir, and helped reestablish the melodrama genre in the 1950s with her appearances in Peyton Place and Imitation of Life. But Turner's importance is not rooted in her acting. Turner was a movie star in the old style, a product of the studio system, a glamour girl, a femme fatale.

Jean Mildred Frances Turner's film career began when she was fifteen years old and was hired to be an extra in A Star Is Born. MGM gave her the name Lana, and studio publicity claimed she had been discovered by the editor of the Hollywood Reporter while having a strawberry...