Movie Night With Urbaniak: The Lady Eve
I will have much more to say about this landmark comedy from 1941 in connection with my forthcoming analysis of The Hudsucker Proxy, which lifts a number of scenes from it.
For now though, let me just say this: I have often lamented that our generation doesn’t quite have a Myrna Loy, but my God, we don’t have anything within miles of a Barbara Stanwyck. An actress who can play an “experienced,” conniving, manipulative grifter, give a complex, multi-layered performance, and be hysterically funny, and make us like her, and make our hearts break for her?
Of course, to discover an actress such as this, two things would need to happen: we writers would have to write a part as good as the one Stanwyck plays in The Lady Eve, and then a Hollywood studio would have to produce that script. I can see the first happening, but the second? That would involve a movie with a female protagonist, and everyone knows those don’t make money.
Well, I for one am dying to hear your thoughts on this.
Yay! Me too! I love The Lady Eve. Certainly, you’ve read Mamet’s analysis.
Sadly, there aren’t any Preston Sturgeses around anymore. Heck, the one that we had burned out after only about a decade.
I watched this today. Barbara Stanwyck sort of reminded me of Geena Davis. That is, I could imagine Geena Davis doing a passing impression of Barbara Stanwyck. But, yeah, miles.
Also, you did not, in fact, have much more to say about this. Or did I miss that too?
I did have a lot more to say about it, but as time went by, the great weight of my thoughts compressed my ideas into about half a sentence.