Barbara Stanwyck: The Miracle Woman

Introduction

3 i n t r o d u C t i o n This book is a heartfelt appreciation of Barbara Stanwyck’s work in movies . While there have been many studies and biographies on female film stars of equal stature—stars like Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, and Greta Garbo—comparatively few books about Stanwyck have appeared. Of these, Al DiOrio’s mid-eighties biography is small but serviceable, while Axel Madsen’s 1994 biography paints a grim, insensitive picture of Stanwyck’s personal life, relies heavily on gossip, and pays only cursory and inexact attention to her films. Back in 1974, Ella Smith brought out Starring฀Miss฀Barbara฀Stanwyck, which is stuffed with evocative photos and features an insightful analysis of Stanwyck’s acting, along with helpful interviews with many of the people who worked with Stanwyck, most of whom sing her praises. That book was written while Stanwyck was still alive, and it was meant as a tribute that would please her; for all its fine writing and detail, it doesn’t have the long-range perspective that is possible now. This book includes sections about Stanwyck’s personal life, and I will sometimes indulge in educated guesses about this shadowy subject. These guesses are by definition speculative and hopefully open enough to allow you to make up your own mind about her off-screen existence. The main event for me, though, is Stanwyck’s films and her work in them. You’ll find little of the usual filler about Hollywood at the time, who might have said what to whom at the Coconut Grove, or how much money Stanwyck made for each project. I see Stanwyck as a major artist, and I want to show you the nitty-gritty of what she accomplished and how she managed to accomplish it. Stanwyck collaborated with some of the finest directors of her time: from Frank Capra, William Wellman, William Dieterle, George Stevens, John Ford, King Vidor, and Mitchell Leisen in the thirties; to Preston i n t r o d u C t i o n 4 Sturges, Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, André de Toth, and Robert Siodmak in the forties; to Anthony Mann, Fritz Lang, Douglas Sirk, and Sam Fuller in the fifties; to Jacques Tourneur and Joseph H. Lewis on TV in the sixties. She was never tied to one studio, which is why she had more freedom in picking properties, and, unlike many of her contemporaries, she found herself in ever more adventurous company in the movies as she got older. There hasn’t been enough analysis of her directors and her films themselves as a whole. For instance, the earlier Stanwyck books dismiss her two seminal films with Sirk outright. I hope that my book can help to open up discussion on her best movies and offer you a close, in-depth reading of her gifts and the varied, inventive ways she put them to use. ...