TV Reviews : Anderson Believable as ‘30s Star Thelma Todd

The absorbing “White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd” (at 9 p.m. Sunday on Channels 4, 36 and 39) presents the popular comedienne of the 1930s as an archetypal, ill-fated Hollywood blonde--sexy, talented and beautiful.

Loni Anderson’s endearing Todd is well-liked but headstrong, fast-living but ever seeking the love that eludes her, cursed with an unhappy childhood that propels her on a self-destructive path long before fate caught up with her on a December night in 1935.

Along with that of director William Desmond Taylor, the death of Thelma Todd, who was found slumped over the wheel of her Lincoln Phaeton convertible in a garage above her Pacific Coast Highway restaurant, is one of Hollywood’s enduring unsolved mysteries. Several years ago, writer Andy Edmonds in “Hot Toddy” came up with a solution that by necessity was conjectural but which was backed by solid research and the force of logic. Edmonds was persuasive, and “White Hot,” adapted from Edmonds’ book by Robert E. Thompson and Lindsay Harrison, is true to its source.

Directed by Paul Wendkos with style and dispatch, the film is economical yet comprehensive in its portrait of Todd, burdened with a cold, dominating mother (Lois Smith, who makes her character a monster yet recognizably human) and with lousy taste in men. The one man who seems to have loved her genuinely was the gifted director Roland West (Lawrence Pressman, in a deft turn as an elegant loser), her partner in her Sidewalk Cafe. But Todd was far more attracted to the handsome, caddish agent Pat Di Cicco (John O’Hurley) and even more to the virile, dangerous gangster Lucky Luciano (Robert Davi, perfectly cast).

Anderson, who was an excellent Jayne Mansfield in an earlier TV movie bio, here has a greater challenge in defining Todd. It’s hard to say how close she comes to becoming the “real” Todd, but her Thelma is always believable.

“White Hot” benefits from the current appreciation of the Art Deco style: Donald Light-Harris’ production design is well-nigh flawless, and so are Heidi Kaczenski’s costumes, reminiscent of the clothes of the great Hollywood designers of the ‘30s.