“Sometimes
hope can be a false prophet.”
Today
is the 105th birthday of the lovely and incredibly talented Barbara
Stanwyck. She was born Ruby Catherine Stevens on July 16, 1907 in Brooklyn, New
York. I cannot remember the first film I ever watched of Stanwyck’s, I wish I
could but all I know is that is must have been really good because she became
one of my all time favorite classic actresses. Stanwyck could play any role be
it a racy woman in a pre-code, a woman in trouble in dramas, a wonderful
comedic character in a screwball comedy, or a perfectly bad femme fatale in a
Noir. Stanwyck is one of those perfect classic actresses where if the film
itself is terrible she still turns out a great performance. Director Frank
Capra, who directed Barbara Stanwyck in films such as Ladies of Leisure (1930), The
Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933), and Meet
John Doe (1941) sums up her as an actress:
“Stanwyck doesn’t
act a scene. She lives it. Her emotions are so genuine that they must be
captured in their first expression. Her best work is the result - not of timing
and rehearsing and study - but of pure feminine reaction. She gives everything
she has, and its great sincerity and strength must be caught at fever heat.”
In all the Barbara Stanwyck films I have seen Capra’s quote explains
her perfectly. Her emotions are so real you want to cry when she cries and be
happy as a person can be when she is happy.
I have yet to see what are
considered her best films like Lady of Burlesque and Sorry, Wrong
Number but the films I have seen of her I have liked very much (well except
for Double Indemnity… read my post to see why). The Lady Eve is
probably my favorite out of Stanwyck’s films I have seen so far. I remember
seeing it and just loving everything about especially her voice it was the
first time I took notice of her voice and her Brooklyn accent and loved it. I
must say I love sitting through her version of Annie Oakley because of
her accent, it is hysterical hearing a Brooklyn accent coming out from a
character who is supposed to be from the Midwest. Besides her incredible acting
Stanwyck’s accent is my favorite thing about her. It somehow always added to
her characters especially when they needed to be tough like she had to be in Baby
Face. It made her real and made her characters real.
In honor of Barbara Stanwyck’s
birthday I have decided to watch and review her 1937 drama with Joel McCrea Internes
Can’t Take Money.
Internes Can’t Take Money is the first time the character of James Kildare was put on the
screen. This film was done at Paramount but MGM eventually gained the rights to
the character and turned it into a successful series of films starring Lew
Ayres as the title character and Lionel Barrymore. I have yet to see the more
famous Dr. Kildare films so I cannot compare them with this version. But I can
say I like Internes Can’t Take Money for its good story and fabulous acting
by McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck.
James Kildare is an intern at a
hospital in New York City. He is a very smart man and works very hard at what
he does. At ten dollars a month he is studying to be a surgeon. One day while
on the floor he is given a patient named Janet Haley (Stanwyck). She has an
infected burn on her wrist from a pleating machine that she works on. When
Janet gets up to leave she faints from what James says is malnutrition.
After Janet rests for a bit she
walks across the street to the local bar where gangsters and thugs hang about.
She is there to meet a gangster named Dan Innes. He asks her why she is mixed
up with gangsters and she tells him that two years ago she was sent to prison
because her husband, with whom she was estranged, was a bank robber and died in
her arms after he had been shot in a robbery. The cops sent her to jail because
she would not say anything about her husband. She did not say anything because
her husband took their daughter when he left so she would not talk to hurt the
daughter. The bum hid the daughter from Janet under a different name and she
cannot find her little girl. For months Janet has gone broke from false leads
and now she desperate and goes to Innes who is as crooked as they come. Innes
tells her for a thousand dollars he can tell her where her daughter is.
James comes into the bar. Not long
after a man comes in with a bullet in his arm and faints. He wants to take the
man to the hospital but he is stopped. James has no choice but to operate on the
man in the bar. He sees Janet and asks for her help. James saves the man’s
life. Janet is happy to see James again. From the moment they met there was a
spark between, a spark so strong that she does not even realize she is smiling
at him.
Innes goes to Janet at her
apartment. He makes her life hell saying that he can get her daughter but what
about money and a place to live. Innes tells Janet to forget the thousand
dollars if she comes to stay with him at his place in the country she can live
there with him and her daughter. That is the last thing Janet wants to do so
she tells him she will get the money somehow. That night James goes to the bar
and the bar tender hands him a thousand dollars from the gangster Hanlon whose
life he saved. James feels bad about taking the money because he is not
supposed to accept money as an intern it is against the rules. He gets Janet’s
address from the hospital records and takes food over to her place. James tells
her about the money and how he cannot take it and she becomes very upset. Janet
says she needs the money but cannot tell him why. He places it in his coat
pocket and Janet takes it out and hides it when he is in the kitchen.
Unfortunately James saw what she did and leaves.
When James sees Hanlon to give the
money Hanlon tells him that instead of the money if he (James) ever needs a
favor to come to him and he will work it out. The favor comes just in time as
James finds out what is happening to Janet. Hanlon has his men find Inness and
Janet before they can leave the city and bring them back. Innes gets shot in
the liver by one of the men. James saves him but Innes still will not give up
the daughter’s location. Eventually Innes tells Hanlon where the girl is after
Hanlon tells him that James will leave and without James around he will die.
Happy ending, Janet finds her
daughter in an orphanage.
Not one of the best films ever but
Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck were excellent. Frank Capra was so spot on in
his description of Stanwyck’s acting. She was such a great actress you feel
every emotion as she plays it on the screen. You believe she is her character
an emotionally and physically drained woman desperately looking for her
daughter. The more I see of Joel McCrea the more he is becoming my knight and
shining armor haha. I love and adore Joel McCrea. He is such an
underappreciated actor he was so good. Stanwyck and McCrea had great chemistry
together but honestly I think these two could have had chemistry with a pole
they were such amazing actors.
Internes Can’t Take Money was
an alright film. The story is melodramatic but Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea’s
performances more than make up for it. If you can find Internes Can’t Take
Money definitely give it a watch.
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