Heartbreak & Vine Film Festival

Day 8

Femmes Fatales

Barbara Stanwyck was more versatile than she is often given credit for. Of course, there's Double Indemnity, and an assortment of noir outings, but I also like her pre-production code work. Not as vulnerable a presence as Gloria Grahame, but there is always the impression that below her tough exterior lurks someone more fragile, whose circumstances have coerced her to adopt one of her many masks.

Night Nurse, directed by William Wellman in 1931
Forbidden, directed by Frank Capra in 1932
Ladies of Leisure, directed by Frank Capra in 1930
Baby Face (trailer), directed by Alfred E. Green in 1933
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (with Liz Scott), directed by Lewis Milestone in 1946
Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder in 1944