Barbara Stanwyck: The Women Behind the Fear

 

Hello my lovelies. How are you all this evening? Oh what a busy weekend it has been I have been working on the outline of a new book and then my printer decided that it was time it went into retirement. Though I can hardly complain, it has served me well.

I began to do some organising of the sitting room and I found a box, a shoe box I had decorated with some lovely wrapping paper. Inside were some DVDs, old black and whites from movies of the 1940s.

When I was a girl, I used to watch old B&W movies with my mother and as I grew up my love for film noir stayed with me. One actress in particular who walked onto the screen, and you forgot that she was acting. Her voice was husky and she exuded panache, beauty, and fear. She was the true gothic heroine without ever trying. Her name, Miss Barbara Stanwyck.

When I lived in Sweden during the summer months, I would drive from Ireland across Europe, various stops in different places had me visit different vintage shops and record stores. It was in a shop in Örebro,  that I picked up a movie on DVD, The Other Love. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

Some years later, I added to my collection of Barbara Stanwyck movies, with The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and Sorry Wrong Number.

Let’s discuss this remarkable lady and her moving, and intense portrayal of fear, love, and obsession.

 

 Sorry, Wrong Number:

Who doesn’t remember this absolute classic. The spoilt invalid wife, Leona Stephenson, laid up in bed, and trying desperately to call her husband Henry. Crossed lines makes Leona cross as she tries without success to reach Henry.

It’s during a series of these crossed lines that she discovers the plot for a murder that is to take place that night.

Leona frantically tries to call the police and the operators, but no one is listening to her. They think that she is just a crazy woman who is lonely and looking for attention.

The movie in itself has a rather simplistic plot. Crossed lines, overheard conversation and a fantastical story told to the police.

Very few actresses could have pulled off this role. Specifically making you believe that the fear was real. First, you think that Leona is an annoying lady who is clearly neglected by her husband, who is annoyed by her clinginess.

As the movie continues, and through a series of flashbacks you get to know more about Leona’s situation and her husband. Slowly you become less annoyed with her and suddenly, you begin to feel the desperation that she is feeling. The isolation in an apartment. Let’s face it, her voice carries that smoky anxiousness that you begin to raise your voice at the TV for them to listen to her. She’s telling the truth.

The viewer, thanks to the brilliant portrayal by Barbara Stanwyck is taken along on what could very easily be billed as one of the great psychological thrillers of the 1940s. It’s a movie, that despite its age really has stood the test of time.  

 The Strange Love of Martha Ivers:

Ah Martha Ivers, who wants to be known as Martha Smith. Personally, I think that that is one of the most iconic lines in the movie. But I am getting ahead of myself here.

The Strange love of Martha Ivers is a story About three childhood friends who really aren’t friends. First there’s Sam Masterson, a boy born on the wrong side of the tracks, he’s trouble with a capital ‘T’. Then there’s Walter O’Neil, son of Martha’s tutor. Martha herself. Selfish, vindictive and completely manipulative.

The movie opens with Martha trying to run away on a train with Sam, whom she has a deep friendship with, but their escape is short lived, and Martha is returned to her aunt’s house. No spoilers.

Fast forward to 1946 and Sam returns to Iverstown. He has a car accident and by chance meets the very lovely and broken Toni Marachek. This is where the story gets interesting. Sam tries to help Toni, who is paroled and breaks the terms of her parole. Sam, then the trouble really begins when cue, Martha Ivers enters the screen.

This movie through whatever reason isn’t nearly as popular as it should be. Barbara Stanwyck is at her most gothic villainous splendour. Though never billed as a gothic movie, it really has all of the elements that a brilliant gothic story has. Martha is devious, lethal and very dangerous. As Sam discovers.

For the movie buffs a little fact about this movie, it was the first role that Kirk Douglas played, and it set him on his way to iconic status. It would be unfair of me not to mention that Sam was played by the multi-talented Van Heflin.

 The Other Love:

One of my favourite movies with Barbara Stanwyck. She plays the internationally renowned pianist Karen Duncan, who has to retreat to a sanitorium in Switzerland because she has a serious lung illness and the high altitude is believed to work. There she meets a doctor, Tony Stanton, played by the fantastic David Niven, who it seems is a miracle doctor. They fall in love and so begin an obsessive love affair. Tony tries to stop Karen from doing what will stress her.

On a visit to the local town, Karen collides with the very charming and incredibly handsome Paul Clermont, a racing driver with a reckless attitude to life. He convinces Karen to live for the moment and not be tied down by rules.

She ignores Tony’s warnings that her health isn’t good and could be fatal if she leaves the sanatorium and goes to Monte Carlo.

Barbara plays a blinder in this movie as the dying woman, her vulnerability makes you want to climb into the screen and give her a hug. There are also the undertones that Tony’s obsessive love is adding to her, and he is holding back her recovery. It’s got all the ingredients of a classic gothic romance with the sad consequences.

Another little fact is, The Other Love is based on the incredible novel, ‘Heaven has no favourites’ by Erich Maria Remarque, author of ‘All quiet on the Western Front’.

So, my lovelies, I hope you enjoyed this evening’s little chat about a remarkable lady, an icon of film noir. Barbara Stanwyck is one of those actresses that when she walks on to the screen you sit up and take notice. She doesn’t just act a role, Barbara becomes the character and she leaves you feeling like you are a voyeur hiding in the closet seeing her life.

Until next time my lovelies, happy viewing and let me know what you think of the movies mentioned.

Anna.