Frances Farmer's film career lasted a short six years (between 1936 and 1942, with one film appearance in 1958) before she retired, as the film encyclopedias say, due to ill health. Farmer's autobiography, “Will There Ever Be a Morning?", published in 1972, two years after her death, gives an account of political, psychological and medical mistreatment that would make for more drama (and more grisly crime) than all of her film scripts put together. A Hollywood film, a TV movie and an independent feature currently being produced have renewed interest in her life story. It seems time to examine Frances Farmer, the actress.