Is there a more beloved movie actress remembered by cinephiles than Barbara Stanwyck? I don't think so. Of the movie blogs I read, the one thing they always seem to have in common is Barbara Stanwyck was a special type.
Stanwyck was the kind of actress not appreciated enough in her day. Although she was nominated for four Academy Awards, she never won. She never struck me as carrying the type of prestige like Bette Davies or Katherine Hepburn. You could never picture Stanwyck in a costume drama saying classical lines, she was always a modern girl. Stanwyck is mostly now known for her work in comedies like Hawks' "Ball of Fire" or Sturges' "The Lady Eve", or classic film noirs like Fritz Lang's "Clash By Night" and of course Billy Wilder's masterpiece "Double Indemnity".
I'd be hard pressed to say what my favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance is, I like all the above titles, I would also throw in Anthony Mann's western "The Furies", and Frank Capra's "Meet John Doe".
Stanwyck's characters always have something in common, they are survivors, they con, connive, and charm their way through life. Sometimes we fall in love with these types, and other times they can be deadly.
One film that I would say brings out everything about Stanwyck I admire is 1931's "Night Nurse". In it Stanwyck plays Laura Hart, a working class girl who attends nursing school. She ends up getting her training at the city hospital where she befriends another nurse "Maloney" (Joan Blondell). After a late night out, Laura and Maloney are caught by the head nurse and are punished by working nights. One night while working, Laura helps a friendly bootlegger with a bullet wound (Ben Lyon) who becomes eternally indebted to her.
After graduation, Laura gets a job at a high end 5th avenue apartment looking after two sick children. It doesn't take long to find out something isn't right in the apartment. The children are slowly being murdered by their crooked doctor and a mysterious chauffeur named Nick (Clark Gable). Nick is in charge of the place while the children's mother is kept liquored up most of the time. It seems the children have a large trust fund which Nick hopes to inherit once the family is bumped off, and Laura seems to be the only one who cares about the children.
"Night Nurse" was a benchmark film during the pre-code era of movies. This was when sex and violence could still be alluded to in blunt straight forward ways. This explains why Stanwyck and Blondell are constantly being shown taking off their nurse's uniforms, and why a friendly bootlegger could end up being a hero. After 1934none of this could happen.
The film was directed by William Wellman who directed another pre-code classic the same year as this, "Public Enemy" which made James Cagney a star. Wellman makes this dizzy melodrama work, it's fast-paced, tough, and contemporary, which makes it hold up better than most early sound films of that era.
But the real savior of "Night Nurse" comes from Stanwyck. For those who think they never had juicy roles for women back then should see this film. Laura is a woman who knows how to handle herself, she's hard nosed, and just as aggressive as the toughest guys in the film. Watching her confront Gable is a treat. Gable was one of the toughest guys in Hollywood at the time and his size shows it, but Stanwyck never stands down even though she is physically much smaller than he is.
The penultimate scene however comes when Stanwyck confronts the children's drunken mother. At first it's a plea for her to do something about her children, but after Stanwyck sees the mother is too far gone, it becomes a rather rough and comical struggle.
There are plenty of things wrong with "Night Nurse" that makes show its age, I'm not too sure about the some of the plot holes such as not having one doctor intervene as a matter of ethics even though it's clear enough the children are being deliberately killed off by another doctor.
"Night Nurse" is a study of Stanwyck, she was a unique actress of her time, and remains so today. Other actresses of that era don't seem to have aged as well since their styles were more out of date and theatrical, (I cringe at Norma Shearer). Stanwyck was always ahead of the curve, even today's actresses don't seem to add up. Where are the Stanwyck characters of today? Are any being made anymore? If they are, they are too far and in between, I can't picture a romantic comedy made today that Stanwyck could be in, they are too tame, and lack personality. Stanwyck was always ready for anything, she was unconventional, and a true original, movies today probably couldn't hold her.
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