I don't know if it's because she had exceptionally pretty feet, or her directors had foot fetishes, or whether she just had several scenes where her feet or her shoes were a plot device: the above still is from "Ball of Fire", where Henry Fonda as the professor of music falls for Babs as "Sugarpuss" O'Shea, an itinerant songstress and dancer (and mistress of gangstas...), so the idea of her feet as entertainment is fairly congruent with the plot.
And here she is giving Fred MacMurray a little nudge with her tempting toes in "Double Indemnity", a terrific thriller and one of her best performances.And below is perhaps her most sultry foot-catching scenes, with Henry Fonda in "The Lady Eve", a terrific Preston Sturges flick in which she catches Henry, loses him, re-catches him, pretty much slaps him in the face by laying down just how skanky she's been in the past (she was a con artist when they meet in the film taking him for a mark) and STILL re-re-catches him.
Can't say I blame him; I'd have gone for Babs if she'd been the daughter of the regiment. Her movie persona was just that smart. And sexy. And funny.Whatever the reason, the lady's feet never changed in one respect; they were fast, and could think on them.
Dis manibus, Barbara; I hope that you're being smart, and funny, and sexy, somewhere where the audience never tires of you.
5 comments:
Double Indemnity -- what a great film. Ms. Stanwyck had nice gams, and while we could could spool out the foot symbolism, it may just represent the troika you suggest -- smart, funny, sexy.
Kicked back, foot in the male's hand, she is still smiling and in control. I'm with you -- sexy must have humor and smarts to be truly captivating. All of the pouty, sultry looks in the world cannot hold up without substance, methinks.
However. . .perhaps for some men, the absence of a persona behind the facade is a plus (?) I read something dreadful the other day which said that men do not pay for women; rather, they pay for them to leave.
Yechhh.
Lisa: "...pay for them to leave."
Try as I might, I cannot fathom why you would want to pay for that. I am often baffled by my gender.
Perhaps it all comes down to poor self esteem buoyed by disdain of the fairer sex, and a resulting need to choose a woman in a lower station in order to maintain one's fragile alpha status.
Lisa: but...but...women, as a gender, are what makes being human such a delight. I cannot fathom any man who would need to stand atop a woman to feel "higher"...
I was just thinking today of the inexpressible joy that is a woman's voice, the aching beauty that is gentle curve of her thigh, the wonder of the little laugh-lines at the corner of her eye and the softness of her skin beneath your fingers.
What a sad little life these men must lead, that needs must despise such bounty.
Your sincere eloquence transports me. Thank you for being so grand in spirit.
For the others, sad little lives, indeed.
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