The Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon: Barbara Stanwyck's performance in the classic film Titanic(1953).

This is my contribution to "The Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon". Please click on poster located on the side- bar to view the other bloggers participating in the event.

Barbara Stanwyck, one of Hollywood's most natural and talented actresses, throws herself whole-heartedly into the role of Julia. She perfectly performs all of Julia's wide-ranging emotions ranging from: frustration, vindictive, calculating, loving, blunt, empathetic and heartbroken.

The film opens with the wealthy, Sturges family, who enjoy traveling from one exotic location to another. Julia worries that her children, Annette and Norman, will grow up spoiled and conceded. She lies to her husband Richard, saying that she is going back home to America for a visit. Julia books reservations for herself and the children on the Titanic, with no plans of returning to Europe.

Video: boarding the ship..

Her husband Richard wanting to change her mind boards the liner at the last minute. Once they are face to face the couple lets loose with 20 years of repressed anger and bringing out in the open a shocking heartbreaking secret.

Richard Sturges: My dear Julia, I've been around enough bridge tables to recognize someone who's holding a high trump - play it now if you will.

Julia Sturges: We'll discuss it later.

Richard Sturges: Now!

Julia Sturges: All right, Richard. One question first?

Richard Sturges: If it's about Norman, you know the answer. No court in the world, no power in the heavens can force me to give up my son.

Julia Sturges: He is not your son....

After, the ship hits an iceberg, their argument seems unimportant and eventually bringing their relationship full circle.....

Julia Sturges: Oh Richard, where did we miss out on each other? I beg your pardon, Sir. I put you down as a useless man, someone to lead a cotillion.

Richard Sturges: After all, it was my major talent.

Julia Sturges: I'm sorry, sorry about everything.

Richard Sturges: We have no time to catalog our regrets. All we can do is pretend 20 years didn't happen. It's June again. You were walking under some Elm trees in a white muslin dress, the loveliest creature I ever laid eyes on. That summer, when I asked you to marry me, I pledged my eternal devotion. I would take it as a very great favor Julia, if you would accept a restatement of that pledge.

They embrace passionately...

You know that Stanwyck took her part very seriously when she said: "It was bitter cold. I was 47 feet up in the air in a lifeboat...the water below was agitated. We were re-creating an actual tragedy and I burst into tears. I shook with great racking sobs and couldn't stop."

Please click here to view past Noir and Chick Flicks Titanic movie review.

Costume: Dorothy Jeakins Courtesy of the Icon Museum.

Dorothy Jeakins (January 11, 1914 – November 21, 1995). After graduating High School, she was offered a scholarship to study at the Otis Art Institute (now known as Otis College of Art and Design).

Jeakins got her start working as a Disney artist in the 1930's. Her fashion career began as a designer at I. Magnin's, where she was spotted by director Victor Fleming.

She worked steadily for the next thirty-nine years and was best known for her period costumes. Jeakins, who retired in 1990, once summed up her designing: "I can put my world down to two words: Make beauty. It's my cue and my private passion."




The Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon Schedule

July 16

• No Man of Her Own (Vienna's Classic Hollywood)
• Remember the Night (A Thousand Words)
• Sorry, Wrong Number (Thrilling Days of Yesteryear)
• The Miracle Woman (Pre-Code.com)
• Lady of Burlesque (3B Theater: Micro-Brewed Reviews)
• Stella Dallas (Faster, Pussycat! Blog! Blog!)
• Stanwyck the femme fatale (The Scarlett Olive)
• Barbara Stanwyck: an appreciation (The Hitless Wonder Movie Blog)
• Stanwyck's costumes in Ball of Fire (Stardust)

July 17

• Christmas in Connecticut (A Person in the Dark)
• Forty Guns (Lerner International Enterprises)
• Crime of Passion (Running After My Hat)
• Baby Face (Classic Movies)
• Stanwyck and Dynasty (Wide Screen World)
• Titanic (Noir and Chick Flicks)
• Capra and Stanwyck (The Motion Pictures)
• Undecided (The Hollywood Revue)

July 18

• The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (Silver Screenings)
• Witness to Murder (Who Can Turn The World Off With Her Smile?)
• Night Nurse (Comet Over Hollywood)
• A Lost Lady (Tinseltown Royalty)
• The Barbara Stanwyck Show (Caftan Woman)
• Annie Oakley (Silver Scenes)
• Golden Boy (Hollywoodland This N That)
• Stanwyck: a career in pictures (Let's Go to the Movies)
• Blonde Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (Film Noir Blonde)

July 19

• The Lady Eve (Classic Movie Hub
• Gambling Lady (Immortal Ephemera)
• These Wilder Years (Citizen Screen)
• The File on Thelma Jordon (Krell Laboratories)
• All I Desire/There's Always Tomorrow (Pensamientos Filmicos)
• The Two Mrs. Carrolls (The Last Drive In)
• Ladies of Leisure (The Girl with the White Parasol)

July 20

• My Reputation (Portraits by Jenni)
• Ball of Fire (Old Movies Nostalgia)
• Union Pacific (The Kitty Packard Pictorial)
• The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Ferdy on Film)
• A Taste of Evil (3B Theater: Micro-Brewed Reviews)
• The Big Valley (Hamlette's Soliloquy)
• Always Goodbye (Movie Classics)

July 21

• This is My Affair (Crítica Retrô)
• Banjo on My Knee (True Classics)
• Clash by Night (Silver Scenes)
• Forbidden (Shadows and Satin)
• The Night Walker (WeirdFlix)
• Meet John Doe (The Joy and Agony of Movies)
• Undecided (I Wonder if You Wonder)
• "Barbara in the Boardroom" (Fair Warning: Reconsidering Todd Rundgren)

July 22

• Ladies They Talk About (The Man on the Flying Trapeze)
• The Mad Miss Manton (Close Ups and Long Shots)
• Double Indemnity (Classic Movie Hub)
• The Purchase Price (The Nitrate Diva)
• Jeopardy (Pensamientos Filmicos)
• The Thorn Birds (FlorenceFallon.com)
• Walk on the Wild Side (The Last Drive In)
• Stanwyck the anti-heroine (The Great Katharine Hepburn)