| Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck: Great Lady |
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| Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Frank M. Thomas |
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| The Great man's lady 1942. Paramount Director: William A. Wellman Cast: Barbara Stanwyck (Hannah Sempler) Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, Katharine Stevens, Thurston Hall, Costumes: Edith Head |
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| Barbara Stanwyck (above & right) |
| Brian Donlevy, Barbara Stanwyck |
| Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea |
| The film, (which began as Pioneer woman) shows how idealist Joel McCrea builds the city of his dreams in the West and becomes a public hero - inspired by the devotion, courage and self sacrifice of his wife. (Stanwyck) It opens in the present with a 109-year-old Stanwyck embarking on *100years of memories, some good, some bad,* for a girl who is writing a biography of McCrea, and tells the story through flashbacks that begin in 1848 when she was sixteen. The preparations for a role that would age the 33 year-old actress to 109 was extensive, both by the make-up artists and costumer edith Head and especially by Stanwyck herself. |
| In a kind of part many actresses would have died for, Stanwyck managed to convincingly put together a careful, knowledgeable job of aging. It advance by degrees from the willful girl who elopes with McCrea, through the resorceful Pioneer bride and the rich Gambling house owner to the selfless woman who saves his career relinquishing the chance to be reunited with him. And when she appears at the age of 109, it is with a change in physical rhythm( the details of which she makes hers, as she does costume and makeup) that does not wipe out her character. She remains a woman of spirit and intelligence. |
| Barbara Stanwyck's portrait of Hannah is a tour de force. It is a woman's life-- and one actress's versatility-- combined. Joel McCrea put it best when he said: " Stanwyck should have gotten an award for this film, if ever anyone deserved it" It was another success in her increasingly long list and was one of Barbara's favorites. |