Barbara Stanwyck

[5] William Holden’s breakout performance was in this drama about a New York violinist who gets drawn into the boxing ring much to his father’s dismay. His fighting takes him all the way to Madison Square Garden under the guidance of a shady mobster, where bitterness about his life choices leads to a tragic outcome. Golden Boy features adequate performances from Holden and love interest …

[8] George Stevens (Gunga Din, A Place in the Sun) directs this romanticized tale of an American western legend — Annie Oakley, the woman sharpshooter who could beat any man at gunplay. While the real Annie Oakley was surely rougher around the edges, Barbara Stanwyck carries this first film adaptation of Oakley’s life with strength and compassion. The screenplay centers around Oakley’s romance with a …

[6] Barbara Stanwyck stars in this intimate thriller from director John Sturges (The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven) about a woman who is kidnapped by an escaped convict (Ralph Meeker) while trying to find help for her husband. While the husband (Barry Sullivan) is trapped under debris on a beach with rising tide, Stanwyck comes to realize her only means of saving him might be …

[4] Barbara Stanwyck plays a poor waitress who falls in love with a rich man (Regis Toomey), but his mother (Clara Blandick) is determined to keep the two apart. She even goes so far as to have a judge arrest her on a phony morals charge and send her to ninety-day reform program! Once she’s released, Stanwyck starts a new life and becomes a infamous …

[7] Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston square off in this western about a father and daughter fighting over who will control the future of the family’s sprawling cattle ranch. The relationship begins as a loving, mentoring one, but transforms into a battle between master manipulators. When Huston hangs a belligerent squatter who’s also Stanwyck’s childhood paramour, they cross the point of no return. The Furies …

[8] Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck star in this lively screwball comedy from director Howard Hawks. Cooper is working on a new encyclopedia with seven other scholars when he realizes the group is woefully uneducated in the world of contemporary slang. So he hits the streets to research and stumbles upon a wisecracking lounge singer named Sugarpuss O’Shea, played by Stanwyck. He invites her to …

[8] Barbara Stanwyck stars in this pre-code drama about a scrappy young nurse trying to save two sick children from an evil chauffeur (Clark Gable) whose poisoning them so he can marry their drunk mother (Charlotte Merriam) and steal their trust fund. Night Nurse is a great vehicle for Stanwyck, who spends the first half of the film befriending wise-cracking Joan Blondell and falling in …

[8] Chameleon master craftsman Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend) staked a name for himself and elevated low-budget film noir to new levels of respectability with his Hitchcockian suspense yarn Double Indemnity. The film, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, stars Fred MacMurray as an L.A. insurance salesman who conspires with an unhappy housewife, played by Barbara Stanwyck, to collect a massive insurance payout …

[7] A homemaking writer (Barbara Stanwyck) finds herself in a jam after her magazine editor (Sydney Greenstreet) invites himself and a wounded war hero (Dennis Morgan) to her house for Christmas dinner to experience the life she writes about. Trouble is, she isn’t anything she claims to be in her articles — she’s not married, does not have a baby, doesn’t live on a beautiful …

[7] Frank Capra directs Barbara Stanwyck in this cautionary tale of phony evangelism. After her minister father dies unappreciated, Stanwyck’s character falls in with a con man (Sam Hardy) to open a church that fakes miracles. The operation becomes lucrative and Stanwyck becomes a celebrity, but when a blind musician (David Manners) demonstrates true faith and begins to fall in love with her, she begins …

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