Double Feature

June 2011 - In April, I wrote about my admiration for Meryl Streep. But, before there was Meryl, there was Barbara. Barbara Stanwyck. They just don't make 'em like her anymore, which is why, whenever you get a chance to watch one of her movies, you should do it.

In 1940's Remember the Night, Stanwyck plays a thief who tries to do the right thing when she falls in love with a prosecutor. Fred MacMurray is the smitten assistant district attorney.

As the movie opens, Lee Leander (Stanwyck) steals a bracelet from a New York City department store and quickly gets caught. Before you can say, "How do you plead?" her case goes to trial. But, it's just before Christmas and prosecutor John Sargent (MacMurray) gets the case continued until after the New Year. Rather than see Lee spend the holidays in jail, he arranges for her to be freed on bail and the bondsman promptly drops her at his doorstep.

Sargent has plans to head home to Indiana for the holidays. Well, what do you know? Lee is from Indiana, too! So, off they go, bickering playfully as they encounter detours and other obstacles along the way. All too soon, the holidays are over and Lee's trial resumes. Now, the issue is not so much whether she's guilty or innocent, but whether Sargent will risk his integrity to help the woman he loves.

Overall review: Liked it. Stanwyck and MacMurray do well with the snappy script written by Preston Sturges. The one drawback, as it so often is with older films, is that the stereotypes represented here (half-witted servants, references to wife-beating) can seem offensive to a modern audience. You just have to remember that the movie was made in a different era and accept it for what it is. In the end, these stereotypes are not central to the movie, so do your best to overlook them.

The following year, Sturges directed Stanwyck in another romantic comedy, The Lady Eve. This time, Henry Fonda is the leading man. Charles Coburn also stars along with William Demarest (My Three Sons).

Coburn and Stanwyck play Colonel and Jean Harrington, a father/daughter team of card sharps. They're on a cruise ship bound from South America to New York, and they have their sights set on Charles Pike (Fonda), a wealthy man just back from a year spent "up the Amazon."

It doesn't take Jean long to get Pike to fall under her spell. She falls for him, too, and can't bring herself to carry out the con. But, before she can come clean, Pike learns about her conning ways and dumps her. Sometime later, Jean sees a chance for revenge and reinvents herself as Lady Eve.

Overall review: Liked it. The top-notch cast makes the most of a witty script. Stanwyck holds her own as she banters with the boys and Fonda shows off his skills at physical comedy. Anytime The Lady Eve is on, you can deal me in.