Barbara Stanwyck DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE LADY EVE, MEET JOHN DOE, SORRY, WRONG NUMBER, BABY FACETo call Barbara Stanwyck a versatile performer would be an understatement. In a career that spanned over sixty years, she not only played a variety of types in a variety of tones and genres; she often played the definitive version of those types. Has there ever been a more seductively malevolent femme fatale than her Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity? A more pitiful weepie heroine than Stella Dallas? How about a screwball con woman even half as lightning-fast and razor-sharp as Jean Harrington from The Lady Eve? Stanwyck could play tough, tender, smart, and sexy, sometimes all in the same scene. Her talent for shifting personas on a dime is on special display in 1933’s Baby Face, where she played a manipulative maneater with such electrifying skill that it actually helped usher in the Hays code. The idea of woman trying to “have it all” wasn’t really a thing in Stanwyck’s day, but she came as close to being it all as any actress – or any woman, really – could hope to.
Stanwyk was my number one in a large part due to her work in westerns like 40 Guns and The Furies, noirs like Double Indemnity and Clash by Night, and comedies like Lady Eve and Ball of Fire. She also owned a lot of risky, early roles like Baby Face and Stella Dallas. Very versatile with s staggering screen presence.
I love her in “Christmas in Connecticut”. She’s charming and adorable on screen and she seems so natural. A great performance in a loving christmas comedy, also featuring Sydney Greenstreet.
Barbara Stanwyck
Stanwyk was my number one in a large part due to her work in westerns like 40 Guns and The Furies, noirs like Double Indemnity and Clash by Night, and comedies like Lady Eve and Ball of Fire. She also owned a lot of risky, early roles like Baby Face and Stella Dallas. Very versatile with s staggering screen presence.
I love her in “Christmas in Connecticut”. She’s charming and adorable on screen and she seems so natural. A great performance in a loving christmas comedy, also featuring Sydney Greenstreet.