31 Days of Oscar: The Stanwyck Snub
Aiyeeeeee! Not another Stanwyck snub?I just can?t take it! Oscar snubs has got to be one of the juiciest of blogathon topics?we?re all so?passionate?about it. Myself included?At the moment, working on this post, I am mad enough to spit that Barbara Stanwyck, who might...
A Viewer?s Guide: How to Watch The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Martha Ivers in the shadows The Strange Love of Martha Ivers?is a total kinkfest, and if you?re new to it, you can use a little help learning the ropes. I?ll be happy to show you around. Time Out?s synopsis is as concise and elegant as could be, so here it is: ?Superb...
Dickie Moore (1925-2015), Lost and Found
Where all parents are strong and wise and capable, and all children are happy and beloved? ?H.I.,?Raising Arizona It?s an intense little face. The Cupid?s Bow mouth and tiny, turned-up nose sit beneath large, dark, deeply?serious eyes. Dickie wasn?t just cute, he was...
Strangers in a Strange Land: The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932), Shanghai Express (1932), and The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Here are three pre-Code films about women from the West who find themselves in dangerous situations in exotic lands (China in two, Russia in the other). The women are thrown upon their own resources, their ability to adapt and survive, with little or no support or...
The Trouble with Stella Dallas
This post is part of the?Contrary to Popular Opinion Blogathon,?where we set the consensus on its head by defending a maligned film, performer or director or toppling a beloved one! Stella Dallas?is still much beloved 78 years after it was made, and a favorite to many...
There?s Always Tomorrow (1956)
There?s Always Tomorrow?starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, and Joan Bennett. Generally I?m down with Jeanine Basinger?s definition of a woman?s picture as one that centers on a woman and her experience, and this excellent film asks the question, Is it still a...
Barbara Stanwyck: Babs in the Boardroom
In 1948 Barbara Stanwyck?s screen debut was 21 years behind her. In those two decades she had navigated through two hugely successful incarnations: the first as the fresh-faced but wised-up pre-Code ing?nue princess of prisons, speakeasies, and lurid melodramas (with...