Actually, a little more than a decade after Frances Farmer's death, there was a brief flurry of attention given to sensational accounts of her tragic life -- three films in the span of two years.

Farmer was an actress who was once destined for greatness but was later blacklisted from the business. She was eventually confined to a mental hospital, where she claimed to have suffered horrific treatment. Popular speculation after her death was that she was institutionalized because of her radical politics.

The 1982 film "Frances" was the first movie that claimed to be the true story of Farmer's life. The film starred Jessica Lange, who was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal.

Two years later, a smaller-budgeted, stylish, black-and-white biopic was released, called "Committed."

Between the two, CBS produced a telefilm called "Will There Really Be a Morning?" It was based directly on Farmer's autobiography of the same name, released shortly after her death in 1970.

The first sentence of "The New York Times" review of the telefilm was: "Suddenly, it seems, it's Frances Farmer time."

The attention seemed to stem from a couple of books that were released after her death. The first was her autobiography, but in the late 1970s two others were released: "Shadowland," written by a film critic from her native Seattle, and "Look Back in Love," by Farmer's sister, Edith Elliot.

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