POSTED December 4 2012
Barbara Stanwyck, TCM star of the month
“When she was good, she was very, very good, and when she was bad, she was better.” That’s Richard Corliss on Barbara Stanwyck, Hollywood’s best and most versatile good girl, bad girl, girl-about-town and sacrificing mom.
Stanwyck is star of the month on TCM — schedule here — so there’s no excuse for not seeing her great, early pre-Code films like Ladies of Leisure and Miracle Woman.
What’s your favorite Stanwyck movie? I have four, each showing a different facet of the consummate actress: Ladies of Leisure, Stella Dallas, The Lady Eve and Clash by Night.
Double Indemnity always stays on tops, but I love Ball of Fire, Night Nurse and Baby Face quite a bit as well.
Remember the Night (also one of my top two or three Christmas movies). Her change over the course of the movie from hardened con woman to the woman who returns to jail, rather than allow Fred MacMurray’s prosecutor to ruin his career shows a remarkable range. The Lady Eve and Ball of Fire have to be mentioned, as well, and Baby face still has the power to shock, thanks to Stanwyck’s emotional power. Among her later movies, I like There’s Always Tomorrow.
The Lady Eve. She’s funny, tragic, beautiful, amoral, moral. This is the movie that made me a Stanwyck fan for life.
The uncensored Baby Face–because it shows what Hollywood and Stanwyck could do without the usual restrictions.
In addition to my 2 likewise faves TLE and CBN, my Stanwyck pantheon includes MEET JOHN DOE, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and ALL I DESIRE. FORTY GUNS ain’t half bad either…
oh yeah, and BALL OF FIRE –absolutely. Too many good choices!
oops. it’s late…getting ALL I DESIRE confused with MY REPUTATION (it’s been a while since i’ve seen both…)
“When a dress costs over a hundred bucks, it’s a frock!” — Barbara Stanwyck, Ladies of Leisure, #TCM, 8pm http://t.co/eUT0Yqgo
RT @CarrieRickey: “When a dress costs over a hundred bucks, it’s a frock!” — Barbara Stanwyck, Ladies of Leisure, #TCM, 8pm http://t.co/eUT0Yqgo
BALL OF FIRE is just about letter-perfect and so much of what works is because of her. THE LADY EVE and DOUBLE INDEMNITY would be my next choices.
“We’re both rotten, Walter.”
And rotten never looked (or presumably smelled) so good.
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