by Axel Madsen
Durgnat, Raymond, and Simmon, Scott. King Vidor: American. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Eames, John Douglas. The MGM Story. New York: Crown, 1975. Easton, Carol. The Search for Sam Goldwyn. New York: William Morrow,
1975.
Eder, Shirley. Not This Time, Cary Grant. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973. Edwards, Anne. Early Reagan: The Rise to Power. New York: William Morrow, 1987.
. Vivien Leigh. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977.
Eells, George. Final Gig. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1991. Ewen, David. The Life and Death of Tin Pan Alley. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1964.
Faderman, Lillian. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Penguin, 1991. Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas. The Salad Days. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1988. Fein, Irving A. Jack Benny: An Intimate Biography. New York: G.P. Putnam,
1976.
Fenin, George N., and Everson, William. The Western. New York: Bonanza Books, 1976.
Fireman, Judith, ed. TV Book: The Ultimate Television Book. New York: Workman, 1977.
Fonda, Henry, as told to Howard Teichman. My Life. New York: New American Library, 1981.
Fontaine, Joan. No Bed of Roses: An Autobiography. New York: William Morrow, 1978.
Friedrich, Otto. City of Nets. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
Gardner, Ava. Ava: My Story. New York: Bantam, 1990.
Gibson, Margaret Brenman. Clifford Odets. New York: Atheneum, 1981.
Golden, Harry. The Right Time. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1986.
Goldman, Herbert G. Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1992. Goldstein, Malcolm. George S. Kaufman: The Life, His Theater. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1979. Goodman, Ezra. Bogie: The Good-Bad Guy. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1965. Greene, Graham. Graham Greene on Film. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.
Greenwood, Earl, and Tracy, Kathleen. The Boy Who Would Be King: Elvis
Presley. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1990. Guiles, Fred Lawrence. Ja ne Fonda. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982. Gussow, Mel. Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking: A Biography of Daryl F. Zanuck. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971.
Hadleigh, Boze. Conversations with My Elders. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986.
Halliwell, Leslie, ed. Halliwell’s Film Guide, 7th ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
Hart, Moss. Act One: An Autobiography. New York: Random House, 1959. Haskell, Molly, From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the
Movies. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974. Haver, Ronald. David O. Selznick’s Hollywood. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1980.
Head, Edith, and Calistro, Paddy. Edith Head’s Hollywood. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1983.
Higham, Charles. Bette: The Life of Bette Davis. New York: Macmillan,
1981.
. Merchant of Dreams: Louis B. Mayer; MGM and the Secret Hollywood. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1993. . Warner Brothers. New York: Scribner, 1975.
Horan, James D., and Sann, Paul. Pictorial History of the Wild West. New
York: Crown, 1954. Houseman, John. Front and Center. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. Hudson, Rock, and Davidson, Sara. Rock Hudson: His Story. New York:
William Morrow, 1986. Jacobs, Diane. Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Josefsberg, Milt. The Jack Benny Show. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1977.
Kael, Pauline. 5001 Nights at the Movies. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982.
Kahn, Gordon. Hollywood on Trial: The Story of the 10 Who Were Indicted.
New York: Boni & Gaer, 1948. Kaminsky, Stuart. Coop: The Life and Legend of Gary Cooper. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1980. Kelley, Kitty. Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981.
. His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. New York:
Bantam, 1986.
Kendall, Elizabeth. The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the
1930s. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Keyes, Evelyn. Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister: My Lively Life In and Out of
Hollywood. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, 1977. Klauber, Bruce H. World of Gene Krupa. Ventura, CA: Pathfinder Publishing, 1990.
Kobal, John. People Will Talk. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Korda, Michael. Charmed Lives: A Family Romance. New York: Random House, 1979.
Kotsilibas-Davis, James, and Loy, Myrna. Myrna Loy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
Kurth, Peter. American Cassandra: The Life of Dorothy Thompson. Boston: Little, Brown, 1990.
Lambert, Gavin. On Cukor. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1972.
La Vine, W. Robert. In a Glamorous Fashion: The Fabulous Years of Hollywood Costume Design. New York: Scribner, 1980.
Lee, Hermione. Willa Cather: Double Lives. New York: Pantheon, 1989.
Leff, Leonard J., and Simmons, Jerold L. The Dame in the Kimono. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990.
LeRoy, Mervyn, as told to Dick Kleiner. Take One. New York: Hawthorne, 1974.
Levant, Oscar. The Memoirs of an Amnesiac. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1965.
McBride, Joseph. Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.
McGilligan, Patrick. George Cukor: A Biography of a Gentleman Director. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
. Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
Madsen, Axel. Gloria and Joe: The Star-Crossed Love Affair of Gloria Swan-son and Joe Kennedy. New York: William Morrow, 1988.
. William Wyler: The Authorized Biography. New York: Crowell, 1973.
Marx, Arthur. Goldwyn. New York: Norton, 1976.
Meade, Marion. Dorothy Parker: Who’s Fresh Hell Is This? New York: Villard Books, 1988.
Mellow, James R. Hemingway: A Life without Consequence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.
Meredith, Scott. George S. Kaufman and His Friends. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974.
Milne, Tom. Mamoulian. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969.
Morella, Joe, and Epstein, Edward Z. Jane Wyman. New York: Delacorte Press, 1985.
Mosley, Leonard. Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Last Tycoon. Boston: Little, Brown, 1984.
Neal, Patricia, with Richard DeNeut. Patricia Neal: As I Am. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.
Paris, Barry. Louise Brooks. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.
Preminger, Erik Lee. Gypsy and Me: At Home and On the Road with Gypsy Rose Lee. Boston: Little, Brown, 1984.
Previn, André. No Minor Chords: My Days in Hollywood. New York: Dou-bleday, 1991.
Quirk, Lawrence J. Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Passionate Life of Bette Davis. New York: William Morrow, 1990.
. The Films of Robert Taylor. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1975.
Reagan, Nancy. My Turn. New York: Random House, 1989.
Reagan, Ronald. An American Life: The Autobiography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990.
Robinson, Edward G., and Spigelgass, Leonard. All My Yesterdays. New York: Hawthorn, 1973.
Rosen, Marjorie. Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the American Dream. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1973.
Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. New York: Harper &c Row, 1987.
Schatz, Thomas. The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. New York: Pantheon, 1988.
Schumach, Murray. The Face On The Cutting Room Floor. New York: William Morrow, 1964.
Shepherd, Donald, and Slatzer, Robert. Duke: The Life and Times of John Wayne. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985.
Sherman, Eric, and Rubin, Martin. The Director’s Event. New York: Atheneum, 1970.
Shipman, David. Judy Garland. New York: Hyperion, 1993.
. Movie Talk: Who Said What About Whom in the Movies. New York
:
St. Martin’s Press, 1988.
Silver, Alain, and Ward, Elizabeth. Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1979.
Sinclair, Andrew. John Ford. New York: Dial Press, 1979.
Smith, Ella. Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck. New York: Crown, 1974.
Sperber, A. M. Edward R. Murrow. New York: Freundlich Books, 1986.
Spoto, Donald. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Boston: Little, Brown, 1983.
Stack, Robert, with Mark Evans. Straight Shooting. New York: Macmillan, 1980.
Stine, Whitney. Mother Goddam: The Story of the Career of Bette Davis. New York: Hawthorn, 1974.
Sturges, Preston. Preston Sturges: His Life in His Words. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990.
Suskin, Steven. Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theater. New York: Schirmer Books, 1990.
Swindell, Larry. Body and Soul: The Story of John Garfield. New York: William Morrow, 1975.
. The Last Hero: Gary Cooper. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980.
. Charles Βoyer: The Reluctant Lover. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
1983.
Teichmann, Howard. Smart Alec: The Wit, World and Life of Alexander Woolcott. New York: Morrow, 1976.
Thomas, Bob. Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983.
. Selznick. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970.
. King Cohn: The Life and Times of Harry Cohn. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1967.
Thomas, Tony. The Films of Ronald Reagan. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1980.
Tornabene, Lyn. Long Live the King: A Biography of Clark Gable. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1976.
Tulard, Jean, ed. Dictionnaire du Cinéma. Paris: Laffont, 1985.
Turner, Lana. Lana: The Lady, The Legend, The Truth. New York: E.P. Dut-ton, 1982.
Tyler, Parker. Screening the Sexes: Homosexuality in the Movies. New York: Holt, Rinehart, 1972.
Vermilye, Jerry. Barbara Stanwyck. New York: Pyramid, 1975.
Wallis, Hal, and Higham, Charles. Starmaker: The Autobiography of Hal Wallis. New York: Macmillan, 1980.
Walker, Alexander. Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor; New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990.
Wayne, Jane Ellen. Ava’s Men. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
. Gable’s Women. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987.
. Robert Taylor. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977.
. Stanwyck. New York: Arbor House, 1985.
Wellman, William A. A Short Time for Insanity: An Autobiography. New York: Hawthorn, 1974.
Wiley, Mason, and Bona, Damien. Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine, 1986.
Young, Jordan R. Reel Characters. Beverly Hills: Moonstar Press, 1975.
Filmography
BARBARA STANWYCK
(1907-1990)
Broadway Nights. Director: Joseph C. Boyle. Screenplay: Forrest Halsey, from a story by Norman Houston. Camera: Ernest Haller. Cast: Lois Wilson, Sam Hardy, Louis John Bartels, Philip Strange, Barbara Stanwyck (dancer), Bunny Weldon, Sylvia Sidney. Music: Fritz Kreisler. First National, 1927.
Stanwyck’s only silent (with music and sound effects) film has her as a friend of heroine Wilson (star of Covered Wagon), Without mentioning Stanwyck, the New York Times’s Mordaunt Hall called it a story well told with clever camerawork.
The Locked Door. Director: George Fitzmaurice. Screenplay: C. Gardner Sullivan, from the play The Sign on the Door by Channing Pollock. Dialogue: George Scarborough. Camera: Ray June. Editor: Hal Kern. Cast: Rod La Rocque, William Boyd, Barbara Stanwyck (Ann Carter), Betty Bronson, Harry Stubbs, Harry Mestayer, Mack Swain, Zasu Pitts. United Artists (UA), 1929.
La Rocque plays the heavy, and Stanwyck is William Boyd’s bride in this remake of the silent story of husband and wife trying to save each other by assuming guilt for a murder.
Mexicali Rose. Director: Erle C. Kenton. Screenplay: Gladys Lehman (Dorothy Howell). Continuity: Norman Houston. Camera: Ted Tetzlaff. Editor: Leon Barsha. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Mexicali Rose), Sam Hardy, William Janney, Louis Natheaux, Arthur Rankin, Harry Vejar. Columbia, 1929.
Stanwyck hated this Harry Cohn cheapie about a bordertown belle done in by her husband. To get revenge, the wanton Rose marries his younger brother (Janney), but she is ultimately murdered by the village half-wit (Rankin).
Ladies of Leisure. Director: Frank Capra. Screenplay: Jo Swerling, from the play Ladies of the Evening by Milton Herbert Gropper. Camera: Joseph Walker. Editor: Maurice Wright. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Kay Arnold), Lowell Sherman, Ralph Graves, Marie Prévost, Nance O’Neil, George Fawcett. Columbia, 1930.
Stanwyck’s breakthrough picture. She is a “party girl” in this early Depression comedy who falls in love with upper-class gent. The New York Times headlined its review Miss STANWYCK TRIUMPH. Posterity tends to see Ladies of Leisure as only fitfully interesting despite its refreshing toughness and sardonic edge. The film is usually cited as a museum piece of the early-talkie gold-digger weepie genre or as an example of a breezier Capra before his bighearted river of sentiments of It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Meet John Doe.
Ten Cents a Dance. Director: Lionel Barrymore. Screenplay: Jo Swerling. Continuity: Dorothy Howell. Camera: Ernest Haller, Gil Warrenton. Song: Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart. Editor: Arthur Huffsmith. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Barbara O’Neill), Ricardo Cortez, Monroe Owsley, Sally Blane, Blanche Frederici, Martha Sleeper. Columbia, 1931.
Barbara’s dance-hall hostess is lusted after by her husband’s employer who won’t prosecute her embezzling mate if she surrenders her lovely self. The New York Times called the denouement interesting, but said Ten Cents a Dance “goes no more deeply into the story of the girls who dance for a living than does the popular song from which the new film at the Strand is derived.”
Illicit. Director: Archie Mayo. Screenplay: Harvey Thew, from the play by Robert Riskin and Edith Fitzgerald. Camera: Robert Kurrle. Costumes: Earl Luick. Editor: William Holmes. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Anne Vincent), James Rennie, Ricardo Cortez, Joan Blondell, Natalie Moorhead, Charles But-terworth, Claude Gillingwater. Warners, 1931.
For Stanwyck, a good follow-up to Ladies of Leisure, but one of producer Darryl Zanuck’s “working-girl” programmers of little distinction despite screenplay by Robert (It Happened One Night) Riskin. A year later, Warners remade Illicit with Bette Davis and Gene Raymond. Davis resented being handed a Stanwyck hand-me-down. Renamed Ex-Lady, the new version was tawdrier than Illicit. Davis spent most of her screen time in dishabille, and the publicity campaign pictured her half-naked under the headline WE DON’T DARE TELL YOU HOW DARING IT IS.
Night Nurse. Director: William Wellman. Screenplay: Oliver H. P. Garrett, from the novel by Dora Macy. Additional dialogue: Charles Kenyon. Camera: Barney McGill. Costumes: Earl Luick. Editor: Edward M. McDer-mott. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Lora Hart), Ben Lyons, Joan Blondell, Clark Gable, Blanche Frederici, Charlotte Merriam. Warners, 1931.
Gable goes around socking everybody. His bullying of Stanwyck is ghastly. Hollywood Reporter: “A conglomeration of exaggerations, often bordering on serial dramatics.”
The Miracle Woman. Director: Frank Capra. Screenplay: Jo Swerling, from the play Bless You, Sister by John Meehan and Robert Riskin. Camera: Joseph Walker. Editor: Maurice Wright. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Florence Fallon), David Manners, Sam Hardy, Beryl Mercer, Russell Hopton, Charles Middleton. Columbia, 1931.
A thinly disguised retelling of the life of Aimee Semple McPherson with Stanwyck giving peerless performance as the young evangelist who is taken over by a carny promoter and becomes a big-time preacher. “There is no doubt that after reviewing this release, picture and theatermen will agree that Capra can do more with Barbara Stanwyck than any other director she has worked with,” Variety said.
Forbidden. Director: Frank Capra. Screenplay: Jo Swerling, fro
m a story by Frank Capra. Camera: Joseph Walker. Editor: Maurice Wright. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Lulu Smith), Adolphe Menjou, Ralph Bellamy, Dorothy Peterson, Charlotte Henry. Columbia, 1931.
Barbara as a loving adulteress who murders her husband so her lover can continue his upward mobility. Movies with women sacrificing everything for their married lovers or their illegitimate babies were big in the 1930s. Forbidden would rank low in the careers of Capra and Stanwyck. Variety called Forbidden “a cry picture for the girls.” It was Columbia’s 1932 top moneymaker.
Shopworn. Director: Nick Grinde. Screenplay: Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin, from a story by Sarah Y. Mason and Frances Marion. Camera: Joseph Walker. Editor: Gene Havlick. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Kitty Lane), Regis Toomey, Zasu Pitts, Lucien Littlefield, Clara Blandick, Robert Alden. Columbia, 1932.
Barbara as a waitress who becomes a stage star, marries a socialite whose mother railroads her daughter-in-law on a morals charge. The New York Times’s Mordaunt Hall: “Vacillating characters with ludicrously poor memories trip on and off the screen and harangue each other during the tedious proceedings in Shopworn. It is beyond the powers of such players as Barbara
Stanwyck, Regis Toomey, Clara Blandick and Zasu Pitts to make their actions in this film convincing or even mildly interesting.”
So Big. Director: William Wellman. Screenplay: J. Grubb, Alexander and Robert Lord, from the novel by Edna Ferber. Camera: Sid Hickox. Costumes: Orry-Kelly. Editor: William Holmes. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Selina Peake), George Brent, Dawn O’Day (Anne Shirley), Hardie Albright, Dickie Moore, Guy Kibble, Bette Davis, Mae Madison. Warners, 1932.
The first talkie remake of Edna Ferber’s 1924 novel of a widowed teacher and her mother in rough rural community, and Stanwyck’s first A picture. New York World-Telegram: “No matter what one thinks about the picture, the final conviction of anyone who sees Miss Stanwyck’s Selina Peake will be that she herself contributes a fine and stirring performance.”
The Purchase Price. Director: William Wellman. Screenplay: Robert Lord, from the story “The Mud Lark” by Arthur Stringer. Camera: Sid Hickox. Editor: William Holmes. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Joan Gordon), George Brent, Hardie Albright, Lyle Talbot, David Landau. Warners, 1932.
