My Reputation

Barbara Stanwyck's self proclaimed favorite amongst her films this classy soap opera is uniformly well acted and well appointed. It would seem after viewing the film that she was so fond of it because it afforded her the opportunity for many shades of emotion as a recent widow struggling with conflicting feelings. First there are the responsibilities to her young sons who are still recovering from the loss of their father something that is being constantly pointed out by her shrew of a mother, the great Lucile Watson. At first she seems resigned to basically being a professional widow sacrificing any life of her own for her duties and then suddenly George Brent enters the picture and she starts to realize that perhaps there might be a chance for something of her own again, an idea supported by her good friend Eve Arden but then her judgmental mother and false friends make her question her right to happiness. Good stuff movingly enacted.