DISQUS

newcritics: Barbara Stanwyck: The Professional’s Professional

  • Dan Leo · 2 years ago
    If she had only done one movie -- Double Indemnity -- Stanwyck's place on Mt. Olympus would be secure. She and Fred MacMurray in that flick are the most rocking couple in cinema history.

    Yeah, and what about her voice? It was an "actorly" voice (see Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and so many others of that era, with the sort of "trained" voices that are long out of fashion) but so warm and human.

    Thanks for the tribute, Siren. Somewhere up there Stanwyck is flicking her cigarette ash and smiling ever so slightly.
  • Self Styled Siren · 2 years ago
    It is wonderful to see her finally get her due. To me, Stanwyck's voice retained a hint of Brooklyn no matter what she was playing, but unlike fellow Brooklynite Susan Hayward it never intruded on the character.

    There is no question that Double Indemnity was her peak, but the reason I like her as Martha Ivers is that she gets to play the backstory in that one. You know why Martha is the way she is and Stanwyck fleshes her out. Whereas Phyllis Dietrichson is just rotten to the core--deliciously, wondrously so, but not as layered a woman.
  • Sean · 2 years ago
    How about "The Furies" or "Night Nurse"?
  • Self Styled Siren · 2 years ago
    Ah, The Furies is great, and missing from DVD, like The Bitter Tea of General Yen, which probably ranks No. 1 on the list of titles Stanwyck fans want to see on DVD. I have not seen Night Nurse; here I must admit that my knowledge of Stanwyck's earliest work is pretty spotty.
  • wwolfe · 2 years ago
    I like her work in a relatively small but important role in "Executive Suite" and in "There's Always Tomorrow," an underrated Douglas Sirk movie that re-teamed her with MacMurray.

    My favorite might be "Remember the Night." It's always astonishing to see how warm and vulnerable she could be, at roughly the same time she was creating her character in "Double Indemnity."

    If nothing else, Stanwyck is great proof of the pleasures found in getting older: when I was a little kid, she scared me, but now I think she's one of the very best.
  • Self Styled Siren · 2 years ago
    That's one of the few Sirks I haven't seen, and I am a huge Sirk fan. Remember the Night is such a good movie. I wrote it up right before Christmas and discovered that several other bloggers had, too. I think we all saw it on TCM. My favorite Stanwyck moment in that one: the way her face changes from eager nostalgia to apprehension, as they drive through her old town.
  • Kevin Wolf · 2 years ago
    I'm afraid I've always taken her for granted, so my knowledge of her movies is weak. I simply watch what turns up. I must mend my ways.

    Of course, Double Indemnity is great but there's a western I used to see on TCM pretty often, The Violent Men I think it was, in which she more than holds her own against Glenn Ford and Edward G Robinson. She's the best thing in the movie.
  • Manny Maher · 2 years ago
    Did she ever give a bad performance? Not in the movies, that I know of, but what a shame that she had to end up in television--was it because Hollywood wasn't giving her any good roles anymore? I agree with w.wolfe that when I was young she scared me, because of that stupid Big Valley show. Now I can't get enough of her. Must go find that Martha Ivers, which I haven't seen yet.
  • Resume · 2 months ago
    As I heard about her concerts her performances is pretty much timeless
  • GDI Blog · 1 month ago
    i dont think she is the professionals of professional ...

    GDI
  • GDI Blog · 1 month ago
    what is this ?