Here’s a great Christmas present: a month celebrating Ms. Stanwyck. I implore you to free up some time to catch a movie or two from my favorite actress. There’s something for all. Comedy, drama, melodrama, suspense, and noirs she’s done ’em all. You should at least watch her Christmas films. It is a holiday: Stanwyck-mas!
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/518184|0/Barbara-Stanwyck-Wednesdays-in-December.html
Barbara Stanwyck
Originally uploaded by zadie75.
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted about Miss Stanwyck. And it’s been awhile since I’ve seen one of her films. The last was “Remember the Night” on Christmas break. I think I watched it several times then. Not as good as her turn in “The Lady Eve,” but what would be? I think I’ll catch her in “Double Indemnity” as the femme fatale with a bad wig or in “Ball of Fire” as the dame that wins Gary Cooper’s heart. Anything to get my mind off of the weather and the day.
Remember the Night stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. It was released in 1940 a few years before the two stars made memorable cinematic pleasures with Double Indemnity. The movie was also written by Preston Sturges. If you will recall, Sturges directed and wrote The Lady Eve, one of the greatest screwball comedies, for Ms. Stanwyck. What is there not to like about watching this flick?
I haven’t seen it though. It’s one of the few Stanwyck films that I haven’t seen. You know, I think there may be a DVD version out there. I should track it down. But for today it’s being shown on TCM at 6:00 PM. I’ve set my DVR. I can’t wait.
“You see Hopsi, you don’t know very much about girls. The best ones aren’t as good as you think they are and the bad ones aren’t as bad. Not nearly as bad.”
Jean Harrington (Barbara Stanwyck), The Lady Eve
If you’re reading this, then it’s probably too late. Still, run to your TV sets and turn on TCM, they’re hosting a Summer Under the Stars and Miss Barbara Stanwyck is today’s classic movie star. It’s got a wonderful set of her films — lots of rarities that haven’t been shown in a long while. Also, I have to eat my words from a week ago, when I said that there was no movie by the name of You Belong to Me starring Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. There is. Oops, my bad. I read imdb before posting that and must’ve glossed over it completely. Oops, my bad, again.
Anyhow, I set my tivo to do some extra recording, dumping all Olympic coverage. I suggest you do the same.
You Belong to Me sounds like an interesting movie. It stars Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. She’s a doctor. He’s a millionaire. They meet on vacation. I suppose wacky highjinx ensue soon turning to love.
But the movie only sounds interesting. There was never a movie with that description with those two in it. It is almost real and very similar plot points to The Lady Eve. Yet, I think it’s all fabricated.
I got this link in my google search RSS feed for Barabara Stanwyck. I read it the site. I think it’s a spam site as lately this search RSS feed has been getting hit with spam sites. I apologize now if you’re on a Windows machine and it installs some kind of malware.
I can’t believe how sophisticated these spammers are. If you read the rest of the site, you’ll see some other movies that were made in the alternate reality Hollywood of the spammers.
I would be remiss if I forget to note that today would’ve been Barbara Stanwyck’s 101st birthday.
Watch one of her movies today. Let me suggest Walk on the Wild Side. It’s got a little bit of yuri flavor to it. And a fiesty Jane Fonda.
This is a post that most likely should come from my buddy, Wyman, over at JadedWings, but he’s busy doing his own thing so let me tell you about.
TCM is doing race and cinema with Asian actors. Every Tuesday and Thursday they’ll show movies that have asian actors. The one I am most looking forward to is The Bitter Tea of General Yen which stars my fave, Barbara Stanwyck, who is seduced by the oriental devil. Nice. Anyway, try to catch some of these movies because I said so. You’ve got Tivo correct?
No need to get me this for Christmas. I picked it up today. I’ve exhausted Netflix of her films. Still, I get this box set, and I haven’t seen half of them. I can’t wait for some free time to pop them into the DVD player.
Here’s one final list of Miss Stanwyck films to round out celebrating her 100th and the release of this box set. It’s Kim Morgan’s top 5 (Baby Face, Forty Guns, Double Indemnity, Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve), but make sure to click through to her top 10. Anyone who ranks The Lady Eve as her best film over Ball of Fire is aces in my book. As is Miss Stanwyck.
Adventures from my Netflix Queue: Arizona
It seems that it’s been nothing but westerns. I caught 3:10 To Yuma last week (someday I’ll be reviewing it). My Netflix queue has been filled with the old timey stuff. And I totally loved Miss Stanwyck in Forty Guns. It’s an all-american genre, and it has some great movies to love. And it is good to look at some decent work in that genre outside of the major, important films.
Arizona could be one of them. It may not be memorable, but it has a lasting impression on the western genre. Columbia Studios built a fascimile of old Tucson, and it has been used since for other westerns.
Jean Arthur stars as Phoebe Titus, a gal stuck in Arizona making a go of it. She is ambitous and she plots to finally own the largest ranch in the Arizona territories. As her fortunes rise so does the prosperity of Tucson. She has a rival, a suave gentleman named Carteret, who acts nice but is duplicitous. He constantly is sweet to her all the while planning for her downfall. She has suitor. William Holden as Peter Muncie swept into Tucson at the head of a wagon train, courted Ms. Titus with a banjo, goes to California for some shade, comes back a soldier, gets her 500 head of cattle and finally marries her. He also has to settle the Phoebe’s score with cateret as her husband/man of the house.
It’s a sweeping movie. Epic in proportions. Filmed in 1940, you could say this was in reaction to the success of Gone With The Wind. Or you could say that it’s one in the long line of westerns. It makes due with the genre’s conventions, and churns out a solid effort of a movie.
Yet, there were some hilarious things. Ms. Titus made her living selling pies. Yes, pies. I loved that. She goes from selling pies to being the cattle baroness of Tucson. Hilarious. And everyone loved her pies. Muncie especially.
Jean Arthur is another favorite. Actually, I couldn’t stand her at first. Her melodious voice grew on me, and now I own several DVDs of movies she’s been in. Strange that.
3 of 5 stars.
