AHHH!! THAT'S MY GIRL...
I'd like to see Dale Evans do THAT!
* * * * * * * * *
The Stanwyck Stance: She surveys all she possesses.
With arms akimbo it's a pretty powerful stance: aggressive...power and done with contempt.
'Hey, whaddya think you're pullin' here?! You've got the wrong baby!"
We've seen her Capra'd and Sturgessed. She'll pull the trigger, or cigarette or romance leading men with names like Joel, Gary or Henry. She cuts her teeth on sophisticated comedies, damsels-in-distress and downright murderers. She covers the waterfront. How do you want her? Soft, vulnerable, hard-boiled & brassy, cold or scared? Brother you can have her. She's a pre-code chickadee who'll jerk your tears and ain't afraid of no cigar-smokin' dames in prison when she has to do a stretch. Tonight,
TCM winds down the reign of STANWYCK with a couple of westerns:
"Forty Guns" "Annie Oakley" "Maverick Queen" and
"The Violent Men." A gun...a whip...her tongue, no matter. Whatever. She'll hit her mark. Joanie might've done
"Johnny Guitar" but I'd have loved to see her match wits with Stanwyck in
"The Furies." ((( Sigh! ))) That's what imagination's for, I guess. Of all the movies tonite, among my top five favorites of hers is
"My Reputation." I absolutely
love her look in the mid-to-late 1940's and her self-assurance. She's got great support here with Eve Arden & one of her favorite leading men, George Brent. And yes yes it's a "woman's picture" but that's okay. I know Stanwyck can play fierce, strong and independent...but I like that in this movie, those traits are buried under the quivering chin of a frozen virgin married woman who needs permission to live and love. And big ol' stalwart wooden Georgie is just the guy who can cajole and warm her. The politics of it all is galling and maybe even laughable. But I don't laugh. I put myself in another time...another place...another mindset. I watch Stanwyck play it even though I know she was not
of it.
A girl from Brooklyn, brought up in foster homes with limited education and OUT on her own at sixteen. Worked in theatre, burlesque, the chorus. Marries a big Broadway star, came out west with him and got tapped by Fate. And even then, she didn't work in the glam factory of M-G-M or Paramount, but toiled at Poverty Row. Capra saw something - Stanwyck had something. And the result? Fifty years later. Click on the picture below to see her win her honorary Academy Award for her body of work. She stands onstage taking in all the love and applause from the audience. Then strides across it, head up, shoulders back -
perfect posture.
Does fifty years feel like fifty years as you're working your way up to the top? Awwwright, I'm romanticizing her biography a bit. So sue me, I'm a fan. Yes there were heartbreaks and heartaches and crushes and estrangements and hurt feelings, disappointments and regrets: A Human Life. But there were accomplishments and triumphs that probably went beyond her wildest dreams. I can only hope she didn't measure herself against anyone
but herself. And even doing
that can cause sleepless nights.
I think it's fitting that TCM ends its year with Barbara Stanwyck, this giant among giants. ( Thank you TCM! ) I know I know...who am I? After all, I'm a fan. Okay then, don't go by me. Go by her work.
