Most iconic folks don’t merit an eight hundred plus page biography. Even fewer deserve that for the first half of their life. But author Victoria Wilson give her subject Barbara Stanwyck just that, with the first volume (in a presumed two volume set) of her epic biography, Barbara Stanwtck: Steel True 1907-1490.
Stanwyck was a notoriously private person and unlike many of her peers wrote no autobiography and was semi-reclusive in an effort to protect her privacy. As such much of her life is still shrouded in mystery and likely always will be.
Wilson’s prose starts off choppy and abrupt but settles down after the first hundred pages or so. The strongest part of the tome are the portions that deal with Stanwyck’s early, pre-Hollywood life. This is partly due to Stanwyck’s unusual childhood, bounced from home to home until she could finally branch out on her own in the New York City theater.
Another reason is perhaps the books downfall. The later portions of the book become almost hopping from one film to the next. Such was the life of a studio player, but Wilson bogs the proceedings down at times to a snail’s pace with page after page of simple plot summaries. Not only do these fail to provide much, if any insight into the star, but they also remove most any inclination to seek out and view the films themselves. Anyone having the inclination to read a partial biography of such length almost by definition has more than a passing acquaintance with the subject at hand and her lengthy filmography. Such an exhaustive retelling of each film only might make sense if it tied into how Stanwyck approached each role or unique approaches she brought to them. Sadly neither is the case.
Beyond countless and endless plot summaries, Wilson – and kudos to her for such pervasive research- seems determined to ram all of her research into the book regardless of how much it actually pertains to Barbara Stanwyck herself. There’s more than a little talk of industry labor negotiations, detailed dives into the careers of her costars and directors, most namely among the latter Frank Capra and C.B Demille.
At the end of the day Steel True is exhausting rather than exhaustive and it’s with mixed emotions that I look forward to the anticipated second (and presumably) final volume. Hopefully Ms. Wilson will avail herself of a fresh editor in the interim.
With that being said, the portions of the book which actually speak to the enigmatic star are engaging and strong enough to overcome this hurdle and still take Steel True into almost must read status for film fans. Sadly, almost might not be good enough for the time needed to slog through it.
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