Exploding a Myth

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22991, 19 March 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

Exploding a Myth

Failure of Barbara Stanwyck To Reach Top Rank of Film Stars HONESTY OF ACTING THE REASON

By FREDA BRUCE LOCKHART.

That "Barbara Stanwyck is a great actress who never gets a real chance" is one of the cinema's articles of faith. I have read and heard it so often that for six years, ever since I admired her fine work in "Forbiddenl went on accepting it without queS for a time, while she was playing all those laboriously loose women, it was so obviously true that she was getting no kind or Ch<in ßut latterly she has appeared in so many pictures of all sorts and shapes that it seems time to explode the myth that 1 wlhftever is wrong with a Stanwyck picture is never Miss Stanwyck s fault.

UPON examination, the first thing that strikes one is the ' ton of truth in the legend. Miss Stanwyck is a quite extraordinarily able and conscientious actress. It was not her fault that she and the then inexpert Robert Taylor could not hope to make "His Brother's Wife" look like anything but a piece of hoary hokum hashed up to exploit their off-screen romance. She gave a most creditable, if not always credible, portrait of a' girl with motives too mixed to understand. it was not Miss Stanwyck's fault that her American accent cried out loud against the genuine Irish brogue in "The Plough and the Stars." She did her best in the interests of realism by wearing a peasant's shawl without any attempt to appear attractive. Review of Pictures It was certainly not her fault that Walter Brennan wa3 the centre of human appeal in "Banjo on My Knee." She is probably the only Hollywood star who could have fitted into that curious concoction and been convincing in the squalid surroundings of shanty and saloon life. It was not her fault that the characters of the gangsters in "You Can't

much more vital in Barbara Stanwyck's work. The honesty and realism which she brings to her characterisations is not enough. A star must be able to mako any character, however drab, interesting and important. This is done by infusing the realism with a quality of personal magip. However mucn wo burble about realism, the great actress must show us something about the character she plays which we would not see if we met the same character in real lifo. Personal Magic Lacking It is that personal magic which Miss Stanwyck's work lacks. She refuses to adulterate the honesty which is so fine a part of her nature and her screen performances with thu transforming imagination and spiritual comment of a great star. Her attitude is praiseworthy but, I believe, quite wrong. It gives her acting the dreary realism of those novels, fashionable a few years ago, that aimed at presenting a "slice of life" and usually a slice of very squalid lifo at that. The dreariness is not due to the unglamorous parts she has often played. Jean Harlow, in "Riff-Raff," played a factory girl with as little artifice an Miss Stanwyck herself, but she gave her colour and individuality. Greta Garbo in "Anna Christie," managed to appear quite inspiringly lovely and human in a mackintosh. When Miss Stanwyck wears a mackintosh in "You Can't Take Money," she is no different from any women we see on a rainy day in the streets, neither

Take Money'" were twice as vivid as those of the hero and heroine. It was not her fault that, when she took her turn at crazy comedy in "Breakfast for Two." she, the least light of actresses, should be teamed with Herbert Marshall, the least snappy of comedians. What she lacked in fancy the tried to make up in energy. Finally, I cannot believe the clothes in "Stella Dallas" were her fault. She played Stella with praiseworthy courage and was frequently sincerely moving in spite of wearing clothes so exaggeratedly vulgar that they made the character a caricature. No. It is not possible to pick a hole in the integrity of Miss Stanwyck's acting in any of these performances. Yet for each one some excuse has to bo made. Variety in Production There has always been something that held one's admiration within bounds, prevented it from taking wings; something that prevented us from coming out of the cinema, excited, exalted, or completely carried away. Admittedly none of these were great pictures. But they covered a huge range. As soon as you stop to think, the notion that Miss Stanwyck has been kept in a rut becomes a complete illusion. On the contrary, she has had far greater variety of vehicles than most stnrH. Few other stars have got so free of typecasting. Few other stars, too, get more than one smash-hit picture every two years or so. They have to carry the intervening pictures themselves. Joan Crawford has appeared in an almost unbroken series even more trivially tawdry than Miss Stanwyck's. But Miss Crawford always manages to give some impression of contact with a vital, pulsing personality. She dominates her films, whether you like her domination or not. Miss Stanwyck seems to lie down and let her films walk over her. Flaw and Chief Asset 'l cannot help feeling there must be some flaw in Miss Stanwyck's make-up as a star to account for this, even if there is not any fault in her acting. I believe people have missed the flaw because it is so closely connected with her chief assets. Honesty is Barbara Stanwyck's supreme virtue, as a woman and as an actress. She was born and bred in a slum. / So were some other film stars. Most of them have done their best to forget the fact, or to conceal it by acquiring culture or by accepting all the artificial aids Hollywood can supply. Misfi Stanwyck has never found it necessary to conceal or forget. There is not a vestige of false pride about her nature. Her uncompromising honesty is carried right through her private life and right through her work. So when Miss Stanwyck plays a drab fart like Stella DnlJns, or like the poor rish alum-wife in "The Plough and the btars," she dares to play it out of her own memory of the people of that kind she lived among. Sho disdains to make them by one eyelash more attractive or interesting than i;l.e, from ugly experience, knows them to he. Honesty of Acting That honesty is the source of Miss Stanwyck's sustained appeal. Critics welcomed it, because they wore so nauseated by the superimposed glamour of the average screen star. Filmgoers responded to it because through it they sensed the fine genuineness of character that make 3 Stanwyck beloved in private life. It is an admirable quality and a rara one ori the screen. But it is not the beginning and end of great acting. In this case I believe its rareness has blinded people to the lack of something

more interesting nor less. That is exactly the part she is acting My point is that it is no more Miss Stanwyck's fault when her pictures are good than when they are bad. She gets out of any and every part exactly what is in it and no more. Ability in Character Parts Now an actress who does not add something of her own to any kind of part is not a star, though she may be a supremely good actress. That, I believe, is what Miss Stanwyck is: a supremely good actress, who ought to be ranking high among featured players instead of low among the stars. "Annie Oakley" is propably the only picture whose success can be directly credited to Miss Stanwyck. And the part was one of those rare leading parts written for a character actress and not for a star. If she would be content to play fine featured roles most of the year, and a leading part just when a character lead turned up, I think her career would very soon be out of its doldrums.