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Barbara Stanwyck (Illustrated History of the Movies)

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Jerry Vermilye's book on the film career of the great Barbara Stanwyck is one of the best volumes in the undeservedly short-lived Pyramid Press series of the 1970's chronicling the film careers of American movie greats. This little 6x8 paperback is crammed with great photos of Barbara in the movies plus Vermilye's critique on nearly every one of her films. He is admiring but clearly not awe-struck as he is in his volumes on apparently bigger personal favorites Bette Davis and Ida Lupino (he even dares to question whether Stanwyck deserved an Oscar nomination for BALL OF FIRE!!) but his somewhat impartial viewpoint gives the book a solidly grounded profile on one of the movies' greatest actresses. This book is mostly of use for it's great pictures and criticism. Not as essential as Ella Smith's STARRING MISS BARBARA STANWYCK (which Vermilye clearly used as a major reference point, to the point of quoting the New York Times' review of THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS, apparently unaware that Ms. Smith edited the review's comment from a decidely qualified remark (the original quote from TNYT ended with an unfavorable comparison to DOUBLE INDEMNITY) or Homer Dickens' THE FILMS OF BARBARA STANWYCK this book is still a must for Stanwyck buffs and classic movie lovers. The book was published in 1976, almost fifteen years before Stanwyck's death but a full decade after her last feature film (she only made a few television appearances in later years) so all of her big screen work is in here.