Icons: Barbra Stanwyck - Double Indemnity (1944)/The Lady Eve/The Bitter Tea Of General Yen/The Golden Boy (1939)/The Miracle Woman/All I Desire DVD

A bumper box set of classic films featuring 'The Queen' Barbara Stanwyck! Double Indemnity (Dir. Billy Wilder 1944): Director Billy Wilder and writer Raymond Chandler ('The Big Sleep') adapted James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck): kill Dietrichson's husband and make off with the insurance money. But of course in these plots things never quite go as planned and Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) is the... wily insurance investigator who has a feeling that not all is as it seems... The Lady Eve (Dir. Preston Sturges 1941): In 1941 Barbara Stanwyck was offered two screwball roles equally suited to her tart intelligence deft comic timing and undeniable sex appeal and it's a photo finish as to which was funnier; showgirl-on-the-lam Sugarpuss O'Shea the title character in Howard Hawks's 'Ball of Fire' or con artist Jean Harrington a.k.a. Lady Eve Sidwich the delirious fulcrum for this classic Preston Sturges comedy. Under Sturges's typically antic microscope the collision between the gold-digging Harrington and the very rich very hapless brewery-heir-turned-herpetologist Charles Pike (a wonderfully callow guileless Henry Fonda) yields ample opportunity for the writer-director to skewer issues of class and sex; as always Sturges is bold in pushing the censors' envelope capturing a palpable erotic heat between the canny Jean and the literally feverish Charlie who after a year up the Amazon is instantly smitten by the mere sight of her shapely ankles (in hindsight a precursor to her subsequent effect in 'Double Indemnity'). The Bitter Tea Of General Yen (Dir. Frank Capra 1933): Caught in a Chinese rebellion newly-arrived American Megan Davis (Stanwyck) is rescued by a cultured bandit General Yen. When she realises she is being held captive she sets about undermining her captor. In time however she finds that it is not her confinement she must fight against - rather it is her growing attraction to the man... The Golden Boy (Dir. Rouben Mamoulian 1939): The tale of Joe Bonaparte; a boy encouraged by his father to pursue his dream of playing the violin who turns to boxing when poverty sets in. What he witnesses is the tough and uncompromising world of major league boxing; the widespread corruption; and the alluring qualities of one hot dame! The Miracle Woman (Dir. Frank Capra 1931): Barbara Stanwyck stars as Sister Faith Fallon the charismatic leader of a Pentecostal sect. David Manners plays John Carson the blind man whose life is changed by her powerful sermon. Little does he know that Faith works alongside a con-man performing hoax miracles to boost the coiffeurs. Will John's love for Faith finally steer her back onto the right path? All I Desire (Dir. Douglas Sirk 1953): Barbara Stanwyck stars as Naomi Murdock a wayward mother and struggling actress who yearns for her old life before she walked out on her family. Returning to town she finds herself the subject of hearsay and loose speculation from the locals. More importantly her husband is striking up a relationship with a local school teacher and her oldest daughter remains hostile to the mother who abandoned her. Will Naomi be able to repair the damage done and rest her demons? [show more]

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