Barbara Stanwyck: An ILX Film Snobs Thread

heh, I watched The Strange Love of Martha Ivers last night, which is an amusing potboiler. (also, Van Heflin has more screen time than Babs does.) It's basically a reprise of her Indemnity role, tho she kills as a child and gets everything she wants (for awhile) where Phyllis D didn't. Kirk Douglas weirdly cast as her drunken milquetoast husband in his debut!

july 16 on TCM (what wd've been her 100th bday) = ALL BABS ALL DAY

the lady eve = greatest romantic comedy evah

Marther Ivers is slow as molasses too, not least whenever Kirk Douglas, at the dawn of Method, tries to project soulfulness.

the girl who plays Young Martha IS TOT'LY OUTTA CONTROL

Fave line (reading) from Clash By Night: Paul Douglas' well-meaning bumbler of a suitor commiserates over a headache, suggesting that Stanwyck get some aspirin. Her reply gives me whiplash: "Yeah, or a new HEAD."

Babs' 100th

I caught the end of "Sorry, Wrong Number" the other day and was howling with laughter at its badness.

One of her worst movies, agreed, although Burt is smokin'.

i'm taping like six of these

love this lady

i missed Night Nurse, but I assume I'll be able to rent the TCM DVD.

my throats as red as the daily worker, and just as sore!@

love her too.

"i need him like the axe needs the turkey."

i caught Baby Face friday night.

'Baby face' is so awesome.

"Baby Face" is on that "Forbidden Hollywood" set, I believe? I've been meaning to pick it up for a while. I've never seen it, it sounds pretty wild.

Night Nurse is good fun, and Clark Gable never sexier.

Stanwyck has one of her best lines: "You MUTHA!"

OK, let's not re-post the whole thread, "toots" (snapping my gum)

so the version i saw on TMC would have been the original uncensored one?

*TCM

afaik

wasn't "sorry, wrong number" originally a radio play? i admit i can see it being pretty awesome in that format - espec the ending.

Christmas in Connecticut >>> Double Indemnity

Thank you very much for your insight, Mississippi Morrissey.

What's this about her and RJ Wagner?

lol, more beard action?

Hm, the guy that (co-)wrote the Wagner book has written seem other good books, at least from the parts I managed to read.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2008/09/seems-maydecemb.html

Wow, "Baby Face" is quite something, eh? Stanwyck's acting is really good & powerful. (Was that Toby Wing, briefly seen among the bank staff?) (I got the 2 "Forbidden Hollywood" sets for Christmas, the first one has the released version as well as the pre-release, uncut one. Probably watch "Night Nurse" tomorrow, that's on the second set.)

I saw Remember the Night for the first time on Christmas Eve. I wonder if Wilder had before he reteamed her w/ MacMurray, he must've, it was Paramount.

I thought Lane's article didn't get her range on screen, especially for characters in conflict with themselves at least as much as other people--especially Clash By Night, yow. And the vulnerabiltyl like in that one where she's a war widow, trying to be a good mom and also maybe find a new man, and keep her standing (but look out, she's available, and even if she weren't looking, she's so *good* looking and having kids means she ain't no virgin, pally)But she's always aware of vulnerabilty, which is why she can't take her boot off it sometimes (in other roles)

I'm prepared to argue that Stanwyck is the best pre-Method FILM actress (no real thee-a-tu antecedents).

anyone else see "night to remember" on tcm recently, with stanwyck and fred macmurray several years before "double indemnity"? it was a really moving movie, directed by mitchell leisen, written by preston sturges.

it's Remember The Night; Morbs just mentioned it.

"Night Nurse", I thought was even better than "Baby Face". Stanwyck's Lora Hart is so tough and aggressive, very, er, admirable. Clark Gable is really menacing & dislikeable, I pretty much like Joan Blondell whatever she's in. I liked the ending, with Gable's character bumped off by associates of the male protagonist - a bootlegger/gangster! That and the fact that Stanwyck and Blondell get changed into & out of their nurses uniforms loads of times, seemingly necessitating them getting down to their skivvies, I guess makes this kind of archetypally "pre-code".

These 2 "Forbidden Hollywood" DVD sets are pretty great - we also watched "Female", which is pretty dated, as hokey as fuck in places, and pretty antediluvian in its sexual politics, but it was still a blast. As I read somewhere, Ruth Chatterton's swimming pool is the pool used in the "By a Waterfall" number from "Footlight Parade"!

I forgot that Stanwyck was in "Dynasty"! What a trouper, kind of like old lady Joan Blondell being in "Starsky & Hutch".

Don't forget her in "Big Valley"! (new thread: Barbara Stanwyck vs. Lorne Greene--?)That was my intro to her, as a kid, awesome, and also when I saw her in some older Westerns: I was into those, and she was all in black, with short silver hair, and she was little, wirey, and beautiful)(childhood's end, bro)

At last.

http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Stanwyck-Collection-Internes-Tomorrow/dp/B0037RBVLU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1272638950&sr=8-1-catcorr

There's Always Tomorrow is out on DVD in one of those TCM bundles (4 Films by Sirk or something).

Actually 6 by Stanwyck: http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Stanwyck-Collection-Internes-Tomorrow/dp/B0037RBVLU/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1388106242&sr=1-1&keywords=there%27s+always+tomorrow+1956

or 4 (you've heard of) by Stanwyck via TCM: http://shop.tcm.com/detail.php?p=455398&ecid=PRF-TCM-100189&pa=PRF-TCM-100189

There were moments where I was afraid Remember The Night was going to tip over with some corny business but another great performance from the leading lady made me forget all that. Also enjoyed enjoyed spotting in the jury box the character actor who does the demo of the Talking Picture in Singin' In The Rain, although for the life of me I can't remember if I seen him in actual Sturges-directed pictures or what his name is.

OK, it is of course Julius Tannen, just hadn't put it all together before or had forgotten about it.

Wikipedia sez:

Lucille Ball said that seeing Tannen perform in her hometown of Jamestown, New York when she was a child inspired her to go into show business.

Tcm writeup is full of info: http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/150479%7C0/Remember-the-Night.html

Mitchell Leisen's improvements mainly seems to have been cutting snappy dialogue Preston had written for Fred M because otherwise the movie would be too much about him and besides Fred couldn't pull it off anyway.

Reading Victoria Wilson's biography, the 1000 page part 1 of 2 one. Couple of hundred pages in, I could read it if it was ten times as long with ten times as much info. Too fascinating. Just the kinds of things I like - details about her directors, co-stars, quotes from everyone about her and her about everyone. She talked a big game, as quick with a quip in real life, full of hall of fame-worthy quotes.

I knew some of her story of course, but reading it's clear to me if anything she was tougher than all those gritty dames she portrayed in her first decade. Stubborn as hell, defiant, which goes some ways to explain why she stuck with Fay for a while while he got drunker, happy being an outsider with him vs Hollywood and all the fakes she hated. Interesting reading of her battle with Columbia backed by every other studio over contract breach, she lost and when Columbia head Cohn called to reconcile she gave him a "Nuts" and hung up. 24 years old standing alone vs the system. "Problem with me is I so love a good fight" as she's quoted another page in the book.

Just checked it out of the library. Thanks!

not sure I have 2000 pages of reading on her in me, no matter how good

Above average interest is required, but the details about the scene around her are extensive, the connection bw vaudeville, hollywood, all the people she worked with, the studios. Your mileage may worry, to me there's a lot of new and interesting bits about Hollywood in general. Helps to have watched her filmography or watch it as you go along, though.

vary*

Babs and Frank Capra, courtesy of The Nitrate Diva. Frank very intense as always, she wisely looking past:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFUKVcyVAAA4Dk1.jpg

Recently on tcm in Crime of Passion, at age 50: a totally pro journo, cynical about getting relegated to the agony column; police detective Sterling Hayden is her vision of liberation, from behind the throne, but hey, she gets carried away. Sterling even almost has a facial expression, couple times. Snappy patter from the get-go. Who ordered the Jewish sandwich at the cop press conference? "Ah, he went to the Men's Room to get some fresh air."

Just got up and found Baby Face prison jam nearing the final curve; at 10:45 Central: Ever In My Heart, which starts sappy, but it's a set-up, not for a sucker punch, but something else that takes hold and gets darker and darker---saw it a long time ago, and comes around in my head more often than most (movies, anyway). Includes an incident of cruelty to an animal, nec to plot and not onscreen, but real enough.
Another prison movie and something called Gambling Lady follow, hope it's Stanwyck Day, but at least Stanwyck Morning.

that entrance in Ball of Fire is sumthin huh

also that rendition of "Genevieve" by the profs is the best non-Stanwyck scene (Richard Haydn great throughout)

Happy Birthday, Babs!

Believe Alfred was complaining about Ball of Fire on another thread. It's problematic, but yeah, there is some great stuff in it.

Here: The Big Sleep; or: Films that don't make any sense; or: Howard Hawks: classic or dud?

Her lesbian and/or bi madam in Walk on the Wild Side is one of two reasons to watch that amusing trash (young saucy Jane Fonda being the other), but she seems more fragile and less overbearing than I expected. Maybe that's just how she filled the screen by her mid 50s.

Her intensity is rather scary, though, and it's not camp when she's on screen (when she's not, hoo boy).

the first third/half of ball of fire is pretty great; latter third/half gets kinda plotty. the 7 professors are all uniformly excellent

also watched crime of passion after. not a strong movie!

yeah, of the ones i'd never seen that were shown yesterday, nearly all looked limp, including that one

I missed what I remember as the only good or anyway best scene in East Side, West Side: it's young Ava Gardner, impeccable bird of sin, rising from the wrong side of the tracks to once and for all stake her claim to rich, married, "respectable," born-old pre-Norman Maine-Humbert-Humbert James Mason.
Did get to see the scene in The Mad Miss Manton where young socialite Stanwyck is about to prove that she and the other debs did too find a body and are about to solve the murder for the cops: they have to detain still-clueless Henry Fonda, so it's "Get him, girls." After they have him hogtied, she yanks his pants off, knowing that *he's* not the sort to be going anywhere like that, even if he does get loose while they're out on the case again.

Watched Crime of Passion on Criterion the other night. Even though I don't think it's a very *good* movie - it takes some illogical and nonsensical leaps - it's a melodramatic "women's picture" with a few interesting things to say about suburban lifestyles and gender roles.

Watched Baby Face last night was as great as I’d hoped, but her love for Trenholm was unconvincing to me. Maybe if he had recognized her game right away as a playboy himself, and deliberately resisted lily’s charms, making her try harder, and eventually both succumbing to love.

No BABY FACE, but NIGHT NURSE and several other classics are streaming on Criterion now as part of three different series: PRE-CODE DIVAS, WOMEN OF THE WEST and CON GAMES.

Oh yeah and one nearly universally reviled oddity that I kind of like just showed up on Max as well.

Night Nurse comes and goes on Criterion

Sorry, BABY FACE is showing after all.

THE LADY EVE comes and goes as well.

As does its related bonus material.

THE PURCHASE PRICE is available on TCM on Demand for about another week. Directed by William Wellman. It was kind of poorly received when it came out but seems pretty good as of the first six minutes. Some interesting business— she even sings at the beginning!

Oh yeah and one nearly universally reviled oddity that I kind of like just showed up on Max as well.

Uh-oh, her co-star in THE PURCHASE PRICE is George Brent, which I had been trying not to think about.

His worst picture of 1932, according to the man himself. So no SO BIG!, even though it seems intended as some sort of follow-up.

2 mrs carrols is hilarious and fun

THE PURCHASE PRICE ended up being reasonably consistent all the way through, even the frozen north part with George Brent, who I ended up not minding here. Stanwyck is excellent as usual, Lyle Talbot very good and William Wellman and Sid Hickox both deliver.

Speaking of singing, plus dancing, and a bit more, the former chorus girl also shined in this snacktime activity:

Lady of Burlesque (also known as The G-String Murders and in the UK, Striptease Lady) is a 1943 American musical comedy-mystery film, produced by RKO Pictures and directed by William A. Wellman and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Michael O'Shea. It is a faithful, if sanitized,[1] adaptation of the 1941 novel The G-String Murders written by strip tease queen Gypsy Rose Lee.

A significant portion of the film is taken up with onstage performances, including comic bits and toned-down striptease acts. There is also a lot of backstage action not directly related to the evolving murder mystery but highlighting the characters and lifestyles of the performers and crew.

...The film depicted as much as censors would allow with respect to the nature of "bumps and grinds", as well as the slapdash nature of burlesque shows. When reviewing the film script, which still carried Gypsy Rose Lee's original title, Joseph Breen, head of the Production Code Administration, the movie industry's self-censorship board, commented, "We are concerned about the prominent use of the object known as the 'G-String' as the murder weapon. It is our impression that the use of this extremely intimate female garment will be considered offensive . . . "[1]
...The film made $2 million[3] and earned a hefty profit of $650,000.[4][5][6]

Stanny is like… ripped in that movie

I was calling her that but recently learned that spelling is Stany with one ‘n.’

Stany very ripped; would whup my ass

I assume you know she famously liked to do her own stunts whenever possible.

Yeah she was so cool

https://www.barbara-stanwyck.com/an-interview-with-victoria-wilson-author-of-a-life-of-barbara-stanwyck-steel-true-1907-1940/?

I would imagine that after Fay was out of Stanwyck’s life, Barbara could reconnect with her old friends?

Stanwyck did not do that, once she moved on, she closed the iron door on you, which I am writing about.

THE MIRACLE WOMAN will be on TCM this coming Monday. I've never seen that one.

It's on!

Lived up to its billing