Barbara Stanwyck is one of the icons of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was believable as a hard-boiled film noir dame as she was a madcap heiress in screwball comedy. She had a way of mixing toughness and vulnerability like no other actress in film history. These qualities would contribute to Stanwyck’s longevity in a career that spanned over 60 years.
Stanwyck is so closely identified with film noir due to her
Oscar-nominated performance in Double
Indemnity (1944) that she is almost forgotten for some of the best Christmas-themed
movies ever made.
The four Christmas movies Stanwyck starred in have stood the
test of time and all are worth watching, even in the jaded 21st
century. So here we go!
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| Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) and John Sargent (Fred MacMurray) take a break on their way to Indiana. |
Remember the Night (1940) is directed by the underrated Michell Leisen with a screenplay by Preston Sturges. It’s a wonderful Christmas movie that has been rediscovered in the last several years. It’s also the first pairing of Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, four years before Double Indemnity cemented their status as film noir icons.
Lee Leander (Stanwyck) is arrested for shoplifting a
bracelet from a jewelry store in New York City. Her trial is set to start right
before Christmas. John “Jack” Sargeant (MacMurray), the lawyer set to prosecute
her, gets the trial postponed until after Christmas. He fears that the jurors
will be filled with compassion during the Christmas holiday and declare her not
guilty. But when he hears Lee complain to her lawyer that she’ll be spending Christmas
in jail, Sargeant arranges for her bail.
Through a misunderstanding, the bail bondsman delivers Lee to
Jack’s apartment, thinking he wants to take advantage of the situation by
seducing her. When Jack realizes that Leander is a fellow Hoosier, he
volunteers to drive her home for Christmas. When Lee arrives at her mother’s
home, she finds a mean spirited woman who wants nothing to do with her
daughter. Lee is devastated by her mother’s rejection. Seeing how hurt she is,
Jack invites her to come home with him for Christmas.
Lee is embraced by Jack’s family including his mother
(Beulah Bondi), Aunt Emma (Elizabeth Patterson), and Cousin Willie (Stanley
Holloway). Perhaps for the first time in her life, Lee feels loved and accepted.
Jack’s mother and aunt treat Lee like family and it has a profound effect on
her.
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| Lee and Mrs. Sargent (Beulah Bondi) have a serious conversation. |
When Jack and Lee start falling in love, things begin to change. As much as Jack’s mother feels for Lee’s predicament, she’s concerned for her son’s career, a career that took a lot of hard work and sacrifice.
Will Jack and Lee be able to overcome the obstacles in their
way and find happiness? I hope you get the chance to see this classic for
yourself; I think you’ll be surprised by the ending.
Meet John Doe (1941) is a comedy-drama directed by Frank
Capra. Stanwyck’s co-star is Gary Cooper who has the title role. Stanwyck stars
as Ann Mitchell, a newspaper reporter who is fired when a new owner takes over The Bulletin a paper with a sagging
readership. As she exits, Ann creates a column featuring a man she calls John
Doe who plans on committing suicide to protest the ills of the world on
Christmas Eve.
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| John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) and Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) |
The column gets such a big response from the public that the new editor of the paper hires Ann back. Once she’s back on the paper, Ann sets about finding a “real” John Doe to promote her column and to keep her employed. When she sees Long John Willoughby (Cooper), a former baseball player and tramp, she thinks she’s found the perfect man to play the part. With coaching from Ann, John develops into a competent speaker and leader. John Doe clubs pop up all over the country due to John’s appearances on the radio and Ann’s columns.
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| Ann convinced newspaper editor Henry Connell (James Gleason) that she should get her job back. |
When the owner of the paper D. B. Norton realizes that the
John Doe clubs could help him with his political ambitions, as long as he can
convince Ann and John to go along. Things get complicated when Ann finds
herself falling in love with John but is blinded by the money and position
Norton offers her.
John refuses to go along with Norton which also alienates him
from Ann who he thinks has betrayed him. At an outdoor rally where John is set
to speak, Norton has the microphones turned off and agitators in the crowd
hired to turn the rallygoers against him. Ann, now being held by Norton is
desperate to explain herself to John but he won’t listen. Frustrated and upset,
Ann makes herself sick when she realizes that John thinks she played him for a
fool.
Hurt and disillusioned, John decides to jump off of the top
of City Hall on Christmas Eve just as Ann had said he would in her first
column. D. B. Morton and his associates fear that John may actually try to
jump to his death and go to the top of City Hall. They’re afraid he’ll turn himself
into a martyr and thwart their political ambitions.
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| Ann Mitchell begs John not to jump |
Ann, leaving her sickbed goes to City Hall in an attempt to keep John from jumping. She confronts John and begs him not to jump. She also proclaims her love for him and that together they can continue the John Doe movement. Exhausted from her climb to the top of City Hall and her illness, Ann collapses in John’s arms. At that moment, some members of the John Doe clubs have gone to the top of city hall to tell him the movement isn’t dead and that they still believe in him.
What does John do? Is there hope for John and Ann and the John Doe movement? Watch this classic (it’s free on YouTube) to find out.
Christmas in Connecticut
(1945) is a wonderful screwball comedy directed by Peter Godfrey. Stanwyck
plays Elizabeth Lane, a popular food writer for Smart Housekeeping magazine
owned by publisher Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet). Her stories about
her married life on a farm in Connecticut with her husband and baby have helped
boost circulation, making it one of the top magazines in the country. The only
problem is Elizabeth Lane’s life is one big lie. She can’t cook, she’s not
married, has no baby or a farm in Connecticut. All her recipes come from her
friend Felix Bassenak (S.Z. Sakall) a restaurateur in her neighborhood.
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| Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) and Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) out for a sleigh ride |
As a publicity stunt, Yardley invites a Navy veteran who was adrift at sea for several weeks before his rescue to Elizabeth’s “farm” for Christmas. Yardley believes that if Elizabeth Lane entertains a war hero in her home, readers will buy and subscribe to Smart Housekeeping.
This development puts Elizabeth on the spot. How will she be
able to entertain a war hero when she lives in a small New York City apartment?
Enter John Sloan, an architect, who is in love with Elizabeth and has asked her
to marry him on several occasions but has always been turned down…until now!
John has a farm in Connecticut, the farm she has based her stories on, and he’s
anxious to make her his bride. Sloan even has worked out a plan where they can “rent”
a baby!
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| Felix (S.Z. Sakall) teaches Elizabeth how to flip pancakes |
When returning war hero Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) arrives at the Connecticut farm, he is immediately smitten with Elizabeth Lane, and she is with him. Elizabeth and Sloan try numerous times to get married at the farm but are always interrupted by someone or something. Felix, who doesn’t think Sloan is the right man for Elizabeth, finds ways to disrupt their wedding plans on several occasions. On the other hand, he does all he can to bring Elizabeth and Jefferson together since Felix sees the war veteran as a better match for his friend.
Like many screwball comedies, the action is fast and furious
with lots of witty dialogue and improbable situations. You know that Elizabeth
and Jefferson are destined to be together, but it’s the crazy path they take to
get there that makes this movie so much fun.
My Reputation
(1946) is a wonderful romantic drama directed by Curtis Bernhardt. Stanwyck
stars as Jessica Drummond a widow who is trying to get on with her life while
raising two young boys. She gets a lot of advice from her friends and family on
how she should act now that she’s a widow. Her mother (Lucile Watson) especially
feels that her daughter should mourn her husband perpetually. Jessica’s mother
still wears black in memory of her dead husband. Jessica wants no part of her
mother’s view of widowhood. Some of the film’s major events take place during
the Christmas and New Year’s Eve holidays.
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| Ginna Abbott (Eve Arden) and Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck) |
Jessica’s best friend Ginna Abbott (Eve Arden) and her husband Cary (John Ridgely) invite her on a ski vacation in Lake Tahoe. Jessica has a skiing mishap and is assisted by Major Scott Landis (George Brent). Jessica is wary of Scott’s attention but she needs his help to get back to her friends' cabin. After a little back and forth between the two, Jessica asks him to leave.
Back home in Lake Forest, Illinois, Jessica learns that
Scott is stationed in Chicago. In the meantime, Jessica’s social circle starts
spreading rumors about her and Scott. Not understanding why, when she’s
unattached, a platonic relationship should garner so much attention and ruin
her reputation. One of Jessica’s chief critics is Riette Van Orman (Leona
Maricle) whose husband tried to force himself on Jessica.
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| Jessica and Major Scott Landis (George Brent) on the slopes |
After being subjected to her “friends” talking behind her
back for months, Jessica confronts Riette at Van Orman’s New Year’s Eve
party. Riette expresses her disapproval of Jessica’s behavior in a most unkind
way. Jessica protests saying she’s done nothing wrong and resents Riette’s
judgment.
It’s about this time that Jessica realizes that she’s in
love with Scott and wants to build a life together with him in spite of the
gossip and judgment she may encounter going forward. Scott has orders to go
overseas which complicates their relationship. It is especially difficult for
her two boys who wonder if Jessica has forgotten their father. She tells them
that she loved their father but has it in her to love another
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| My Reputation had its premiere at a U.S. Army base. |
Scott is on his way to New York by train and Jessica goes to meet him. She originally planned on going to New York with him but after speaking with her boys decided not to. Jessica meets Scott at the train but tells him she can’t go with him because her boys are too young to understand. Scott asks her to wait for him. Jessica says she will as she watches the train leave the station.
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