Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck: 1941

Meet John Doe 1941. Warner Brothers/Frank Capra Productions Director: Frank Capra Cast:  Gary Cooper,            Barbara Stanwyck  (Ann Mitchell),          Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan,          James Gleason, Spring Byington,          Gene Lockhart, Ann Doran

Beulah Bondi, Barbara Stanwyck,

Gary Cooper,  Barbara Stanwyck

The year 1941 was busy for both adult members of the Taylor residence Barbara appeared in four films and for his part Robert completed three, "Billy the Kid"," When ladies meet" and "Johnny Eager". They also moved to a house in Beverly Hills.  But not everything was going smoothly. and Robert got involved  in a flirt with Lana Turner, his  costar in "Johnny Eager"  but after  a rumored attempt of suicide/incident of Barbara who was rushed to the ospital with  deep gashes on her arm and wrist, peace and love was back.

More about  the film next page.....

Barbara's performance in "Meet John Doe" was one of her best. The film was enormously popular, and most critics considered (and still do) it Capra's finest work.

"Meet John Doe " was chosen by Film Daily as one of the ten best pictures of the year, and it was a top grossing one. For Barbara Stanwyck, it was  a prelude to what would be a run of exceptional portrayals. Of the four performances she turned out next, Three would join the list of her greatest.

After High Drama, High Comedy came to Barbara when Paulette Goddard  dropped out of her scheduled film because she married Charlie Chaplin. The film was "The Lady Eve" starring Henry Fonda and was written and directed by Preston Sturges.  It was their second film together but it is only with this film that they became  great friends and really enjoyed working together. Beside allowing Stanwyck and Fonda to develop more fully their partnership's potential, "The lady Eve" helped develop another area of Barbara's screen personality. Until Eve, Barbara was well dressed on the screen but had never demanded or received much attention in this area. Of course, this was partially because Barbara's films stood on their own without the crutch of a fabulous wardrobe to redeem them like some of Joan Crawford's films at Metro  had been. On this occasion, however, one of  motion pictures' most renowned designers, Edith Head, was assigned to create Barbara's wardrobe. She had already designed Barbara 's costumes for " Remember the night"  but this time things were different. The clothes she designed for her, with a somewhat South American flair to them, were a sensation and launched a major trend all over the country. Stanwyck was thrilled with Head's work since her first fitting of her first dress( and even more  with the public reaction to it) and arranged for Edith Head to design the wardrobe for her next sixteen films. All in all, Twenty-three of Barbara's films would feature Edith Head fashions.