My Reputation

People are talking in suburban Lake Forest, Illinois. They say young window Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck) is romancing -- too much, too soon -- an army officer (George Brent) she met on a ski getaway. Jessica has heard the hurtful gossip. Unfortunately, so have her two impressionable sons.

Stanwyck, convincing as a sassy stripper in Ball of Fire or an ice-blonde murderess in Double Indemnity, shows a more vulnerable side in this resonant melodrama directed by Curtis Bernhardt (A Stolen Life) with a nuance that embraces romance´s irresistible pull...and its often awkward rites of courtship. Stanwyck would later list her performance as Jessica among her favorites. Watch and you´ll understand why.