Barbara Stanwyck : the miracle woman
(Book)

Independent film scholar Callahan details Barbara Stanwyck's lonely poverty during her early Irish American orphanlike upbringing in Brooklyn; tough self-reliance in her New York nightclub and theater days; harshness from first husband, Frank Fay; heartbreak from the second, Robert Taylor; possible bisexuality; TV roles; and notable Hollywood odyssey in outstanding films of the 1930s-1940s. Callahan goes further than previous biographer Al DiOrio (Barbara Stanwyck: A Biography) and describes the strong influences on Stanwyck's work of directors Alexander Korda, Frank Capra, Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder, Anatole Litvak, and Douglas Sirk. Callahan's entertaining descriptions of Stanwyck's on-screen angst in Double Indemnity; Stella Dallas; Sorry, Wrong Number; The Strange Love of Martha Ivers; and other films combine sentimental admiration and sharp filmic awareness, with insights occasionally forced through a Freudian filter, as, e.g., Callahan dissolves the trope of a tough lady managing a mean man into an on-the-stoop Brooklyn orphan missing Daddy. Verdict Entertaining and informative for film buffs and scholars and noir lovers.-Ann Fey, SUNY Rockland Community Coll., Suffern (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Independent film scholar Callahan details Barbara Stanwyck's lonely poverty during her early Irish American orphanlike upbringing in Brooklyn; tough self-reliance in her New York nightclub and theater days; harshness from first husband, Frank Fay; heartbreak from the second, Robert Taylor; possible bisexuality; TV roles; and notable Hollywood odyssey in outstanding films of the 1930s-1940s. Callahan goes further than previous biographer Al DiOrio (Barbara Stanwyck: A Biography) and describes the strong influences on Stanwyck's work of directors Alexander Korda, Frank Capra, Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder, Anatole Litvak, and Douglas Sirk. Callahan's entertaining descriptions of Stanwyck's on-screen angst in Double Indemnity; Stella Dallas; Sorry, Wrong Number; The Strange Love of Martha Ivers; and other films combine sentimental admiration and sharp filmic awareness, with insights occasionally forced through a Freudian filter, as, e.g., Callahan dissolves the trope of a tough lady managing a mean man into an on-the-stoop Brooklyn orphan missing Daddy. Verdict Entertaining and informative for film buffs and scholars and noir lovers.-Ann Fey, SUNY Rockland Community Coll., Suffern (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.