Category: Barbara Stanwyck

Rewind, Review, and Re-rate: ‘Stella Dallas’: Barbara Stanwyck as an Unlikely but Devoted Mother

U | 1h 46 min | Drama | 1937 Director King Vidor’s “Stella Dallas” is about exchanging dreams: those we choose to exchange and those we’re compelled to. His film draws on Massachusetts-born Olive Higgins Prouty’s novel of the same name. The daughter of a mill worker in 1919 Massachusetts, Stella (Barbara Stanwyck) dreams of…


Popcorn and Inspiration: ‘Meet John Doe’: Frank Capra’s Answer to the Anxiety of Our Age

NR | 2h 2min | Drama | 1941 Frank Capra’s “Meet John Doe” (1941) is about how our trust in the basic goodness of people can help us live by facing, rather than fleeing, our deepest anxieties. Equally, it’s about how cynicism can lead us to die under the weight of these very anxieties. The…


‘My Reputation’ From 1946: Gossip, Convention, and Barbara Stanwyck

“Who steals my purse steals trash. But he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him and makes me poor indeed.” This quote from “Othello” begins “My Reputation,” and it is a strong reminder of how our conduct, even if well-intentioned, can affect others. Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck)…