| Starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck: Hollywood |
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| The Locked Door 1930.United Artists. Director: George Fitzmaurice Cast: Rod La Rocque, Barbara Stanwyck, William Boyd, Betty Bronson, Screenplay: C.Gardner Sullivan from the play " The Sign on the Door" by Channing Pollock. |
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| Barbara Stanwyck, Rod la Rocque |
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| Miss Standwyck 's comment on the film (years later): "They never should've unlocked the damned thing" The film was a disaster but the critics seem to have liked the newcomer and prized her performance. |
| Barbara plays Ann Carter, a secretary who marry her boss (William Boyd) and then is taunted by an unsavory man from her past (Rod La Rocque) The man gets shot by The husband and she's accused of the murder. After a lenghty investigation, the dying man clears matters up telling the police that Boyd pulled the trigger by accident. |
| After "The locked Door" things went from bad to worse. Barbara Stanwyck, Brooklyn accent and all, was cast as a Mexican temptress in "Mexicaly Rose" |
| Mexicali Rose 1930. Clumbia Director: Erle C. Kenton Cast: Sam Hardy, William Janney Screenplay: Gladys Lehman |
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| Barbara Stanwyck, Sam Hardy |
| Barbara Stanwyck, William Janney |
| Barbara Stanwyck was seriously questioning her own future in Hollywood. She had expected the same help she had been given when she started on the stage and instead she had been placed in the hands of directors that knew as much as she did about the new talkies: Nothing. She was ready to go back East but her husband was having some success and she resigned herself to be just Mrs. Frank Fay and continued to make Screen tests. |
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| One of these, in color, was directed by a director from Germany, Alexander Korda, who had been a failure in Hollywood and was ready to return to Europe. When Barbara arrived on the set, she found no makeup man and no script. It was clear that the Studio was giving her the brush-off. Korda introduced himself telling her if she could suggest something. She suggested that she do the final scene from "The Noose" since she knew it by heart. Korda agreed, and after setting the lights and giving her a minimum of direction, he instructed her to begin. The scene lasted only three minutes, but when Barbara was through, Korda had tears in his eyes. and then told her that it had been a privilege to see a real actress at work. |
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