Alexis Weedon is Professor of Publishing Studies and Karen Randell is Professor of Film and Culture, both at the University of Bedfordshire,UK. Their British Academy funded project explores attitudes to the reconstructed body through the creative work of these two Hollywood stars of the 1920s. Their research investigates medical procedures, photos and diaries located at archives in the UK and USA to analyse five films which creatively and successfully addressed the latent fears of technologizing the body.