- TCM schedule – March 19: On Week 3 of its Star of the Month series, Turner Classic Movies will be airing 11 titles featuring Barbara Stanwyck. These consist of releases from the mid-1940s to the late 1950s, the (generally) darker phase – crime dramas, suspense thrillers – of the actress’ career.
Barbara Stanwyck TCM schedule: 11 features, among them the films noir Double Indemnity and Sorry, Wrong Number
Turner Classic Movies’ March 2025 “Star of the Month” presentations continue on Wednesday evening, March 19, with 11 Barbara Stanwyck star vehicles released between 1944 and 1957. Among these are two of her most iconic showcases, both films noir: Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Anatole Litvak’s Sorry, Wrong Number. (See TCM’s Barbara Stanwyck schedule further below. Most titles will remain available for a while on the Watch TCM app.)
This (mostly) post-World War II period can be described as the second, generally darker phase of Stanwyck’s Hollywood career. Despite romantic comedies like Peter Godfrey’s Christmas in Connecticut (1945) and Irving Pichel’s The Bride Wore Boots (1946; unfortunately, not included in the TCM lineup), during that time Stanwyck seemed to be more often found either killing/destroying her men or trying – not always successfully – not to get killed/destroyed by them.
Of course, a good number of Stanwyck’s pre-Production Code titles featured fraud, blackmail, murder, and other deeds that make human beings special – e.g., Night Nurse, The Miracle Woman, Ladies They Talk About – but even something as downbeat as Frank Capra’s Forbidden has a less somber feel than her later fare.
Below are brief comments about each of Turner Classic Movies’ Barbara Stanwyck titles on March 19–20.
Double Indemnity (1944)
Barbara Stanwyck went blonde in order to go deadly as housewife Phyllis Dietrichson – who can blame her for not wanting to waste the best years of her life? – in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. Fred MacMurray plays Stanwyck’s criminal/sexual interest – a role that would have been ideal for Robert Taylor.
One of the great classics of the studio era, Double Indemnity is based on James M. Cain’s 1943 novel. The movie went on to receive seven Academy Award nominations (zero wins), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay (Billy Wilder and crime-novel author Raymond Chandler).
Note: Compare the Double Indemnity publicity image further up with the one found in this review of Mitchell Leisen’s romantic comedy-drama Remember the Night. So similar and yet radically different.
Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
Even if not quite as iconic as Double Indemnity, Anatole Litvak’s Sorry, Wrong Number features what may well be the most powerful (and most disturbing) performance in Barbara Stanwyck’s career. Indeed, the final sequence – when we get to hear the titular line – provides the by then veteran star with the chance to put her dramatic abilities to hair-raising use. A truly remarkable thespian accomplishment that earned Stanwyck her fourth and final Best Actress Oscar nod.
No Man of Her Own (1950)
Less well remembered than either Double Indemnity or Sorry, Wrong Number, Mitchell Leisen’s handsome melodrama No Man of Her Own deserves to be better appreciated. Barbara Stanwyck is flawless as a desperate woman who, by a tragic twist of fate, finds herself a new identity and a new lease on life. But for how long can the deception last?
No Man of Her Own 1950 is in no way connected to No Man of Her Own 1932, a Pre-Code romantic-triangle melodrama directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, and Dorothy Mackaill.
Witness to Murder (1954)
A less-than-convincing cross between Sorry, Wrong Number and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, Roy Rowland’s Witness to Murder is handled competently enough by the filmmaker to hold one’s intention. Yet none of that would have mattered had the titular witness not been someone of Barbara Stanwyck’s caliber.
And that begs the question: Why didn’t Hitchcock cast Barbara Stanwyck – instead of James Stewart – in Rear Window? Ideally, the filmmaker could have kept Grace Kelly as the love interest; else, Kelly could have been turned into the broken-legged busybody’s BFF.
Cry Wolf (1947)
Featuring elements from another Alfred Hitchcock movie, Suspicion, with bits from Jane Eyre thrown in, Peter Godfrey’s Cry Wolf costars Barbara Stanwyck as a widow who believes her dead husband’s uncle – played by a suavely detached Errol Flynn – may want her dead as well. Money issues, of course. Although not a great drama, Cry Wolf surely was a great-looking drama when it came out. Unfortunately, the print previously shown on TCM is on the wrong side of mediocre.
Jeopardy (1953)
In John Sturges’ Jeopardy (not a film version of the stupid television game), beach-hopping U.S. tourist Barry Sullivan gets stuck under a wooden piling as the tide keeps rising and rising. Will desperate wife Barbara Stanwyck have enough time to overcome the obstacles in her path and save him from drowning?
While watching Stanwyck give her all, don’t feel too bad if you ask yourself whether widowhood would become her, especially when seductive escaped convict Ralph Meeker is both willing an available.
The Man with a Cloak (1951)
Joseph Cotten plays the title character – despite all the mystery, it’s pretty obvious who he is early on – and, surprisingly, gets top billing in Fletcher Markle’s noirish New York City-set period drama The Man with a Cloak. The real stars, however, are Barbara Stanwyck, as the amoral mistress-housekeeper to well-to-do but ailing Frenchman (!) Louis Calhern, and Leslie Caron as a young Frenchwoman who arrives in town to ask for financial assistance for a revolutionary cause.
Clash by Night (1952)
What happens when you marry Paul Douglas and his misogynist friend is Robert Ryan? Barbara Stanwyck, in top form, finds out the (obvious) answer to that question in Fritz Lang’s Northern California-set melodrama Clash by Night. The two male leads are less impressive than the female star, but on the plus side both Keith Andes (as her handsome, embittered brother) and Marilyn Monroe (as his sensual girlfriend) are memorably attractive. Based on Clifford Odets’ 1941 play starring Tallulah Bankhead.
The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)
As to be expected, Barbara Stanwyck creates a compelling characterization in Peter Godfrey’s psychological crime drama The Two Mrs. Carrolls. Just as expectedly, Humphrey Bogart is less than convincing as her pathological husband – though, one must admit, he does try, crazed eyes and all.
On the other hand, Alexis Smith is a pleasant surprise: Not only does she look great as the potentially third Mrs. Carroll, but she also holds her own as an actress next to Stanwyck and Bogart. Also fine, as always: Isobel Elsom as Smith’s mother.
A bit of advice if you’re a woman (or a guy, for that matter, where permitted by law): If your lawyer is someone who looks like Warner Anderson (My Reputation) or Patrick O’Moore (The Two Mrs. Carrolls), marry him – and you’ll avoid all sorts of socially and/or physically unhealthy situations in your future.
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Barbara Stanwyck won’t let go of former flame Van Heflin in Lewis Milestone’s moody melodrama The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. As we eventually learn, that’s a serious mistake on her part. In point of fact, she not only should have let Heflin run off happily with ex-con Lizabeth Scott, but she should also have dumped husband Kirk Douglas in the process. With her money, she could have had just about any guy in town.
Stanwyck and Scott are the key reasons to check out The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, which has a wee bit of a problem with strong-willed women. Douglas Sirk might have been able to do wonders with this one, but alas, he would get to work with Stanwyck only in the ensuing decade (All I Desire, There’s Always Tomorrow).
Screenplay by future filmmaker Robert Rossen (All the King’s Men, The Hustler), from John Patrick’s short story “Love Lies Bleeding.” (No connection to the 2024 Kristen Stewart movie of the same name.)
Crime of Passion (1957)
As the saying goes, behind every great man there’s a woman … who will do whatever it takes to make him get ahead in life. Barbara Stanwyck is fine as the newspaper columnist turned housewife of Los Angeles cop Sterling Hayden in Gerd Oswald’s Crime of Passion – which serves as a warning to women never to let go of their professional yearnings in order to marry an unambitious man.
A big, bulky yet weak match for older veterans Bette Davis (The Star) and Joan Crawford (Johnny Guitar), Sterling Hayden is an equally poor match for older veteran Barbara Stanwyck. Had Hayden been a tad more like Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, these big-screen pairings might have worked, but rock stolidness isn’t a quality movie women like Davis, Crawford, and Stanwyck would (believably) go for.
Immediately below is TCM’s Barbara Stanwyck movie schedule on March 19–20.
‘Star of the Month’ Barbara Stanwyck: TCM schedule (EDT) on March 19–20
8:00 PM Double Indemnity (1944)
Director: Billy Wilder.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Tom Powers, Richard Gaines, Mona Freeman.
107 min. | Crime.10:00 PM Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
Director: Anatole Litvak.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Ann Richards, Wendell Corey, Harold Vermilyea, Ed Begley, Leif Erickson, William Conrad, John Bromfield.
88 min. | Thriller.11:45 PM No Man of Her Own (1950)
Director: Mitchell Leisen.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, John Lund, Jane Cowl, Phyllis Thaxter, Lyle Bettger, Henry O’Neill, Richard Denning, Carole Mathews, Esther Dale.
98 min. | Drama.1:30 AM Witness to Murder (1954)
Director: Roy Rowland.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders, Gary Merrill, Jesse White, Harry Shannon, Claire Carleton, Lewis Martin, Juanita Moore.
83 min. | Crime Thriller.3:00 AM Cry Wolf (1947)
Director: Peter Godfrey.
Cast: Errol Flynn, Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Brooks, Richard Basehart, Jerome Cowan, John Ridgely, Patricia Barry.
83 min. | Mystery Drama.4:30 AM Jeopardy (1953)
Director: John Sturges.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Ralph Meeker, Lee Aaker.
69 min. | Thriller.5:45 AM The Man with a Cloak (1951)
Director: Fletcher Markle.
Cast: Joseph Cotten, Barbara Stanwyck, Louis Calhern, Leslie Caron, Joe De Santis, Jim Backus, Margaret Wycherly.
81 min. | Period Crime Drama.7:15 AM Clash by Night (1952)
Director: Fritz Lang.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan, Keith Andes, Marilyn Monroe, J. Carrol Naish, Silvio Minciotti.
104 min. | Romantic Drama.9:15 AM The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)
Director: Peter Godfrey.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Nigel Bruce, Isobel Elsom, Patrick O’Moore, Ann Carter.
99 min. | Crime Drama.11:00 AM The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Director: Lewis Milestone.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott, Kirk Douglas, Judith Anderson, Roman Bohnen, Darryl Hickman, Mickey Kuhn, Ann Doran, Blake Edwards.
116 min. | Drama.1:00 PM Crime of Passion (1957)
Director: Gerd Oswald.
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr, Fay Wray, Virginia Grey, Royal Dano, Jay Adler, Stuart Whitman, Malcolm Atterbury, Robert Quarry.
84 min. | Drama.
“Barbara Stanwyck on TCM” notes/references
Barbara Stanwyck movie schedule via the TCM website.
Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck Double Indemnity image: Paramount Pictures.
“Barbara Stanwyck on TCM: Films Noir, Dark Dramas” last updated on March 2025.