Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Clevercell Very disappointing...

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

SnoopyStyle It's 1942. Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck) is depressed after her husband died leaving her with two teen boys. Family friend Frank Everett is the executor of the estate and has a crush on her. She struggles with society expectations and a lecherous date. She is invited to a ski vacation at Lake Tahoe by Ginna Abbott. She gets lost in the woods and is rescued by Major Scott Landis. She falls for the soldier despite resistance from her family and the societal disapproval. Scott does not get along with Jessica's mother in-law. Her friends' gossips infect her young boys.Other than Barbara Stanwyck, there isn't much to this film. I don't really understand the social boundaries being crossed by her relationship. As a soldier, I'd expect Scott to be a respectable prospect. He's literally going off to war to defend home and country. It's another era and I guess widows were expected to mourn their late husbands until the end of time. Then it doesn't make sense that she goes on that earlier date. It may be helpful if the gossip is told on screen. Even if it doesn't make sense, it would at least make for heightened tension. The kids are more understandable and their questioning is heart-breaking. It's less helpful that the child actors are so stiff. Honestly, the premise is damning but I must remember the times. I guess love doesn't conquer all.

mark.waltz Let's here it for Barbara Stanwyck! The former Stella Dallas gets her grove back as Jessica Drummond in this war era women's picture about a lovely widow who wakes up to discover that she still has it. Having been dominated by her old school mama (Lucille Watson) and pampered by her late husband, she has to wake up and smell the martinis, which she admits, like anchovies, are an acquired taste. All of a sudden after a liberating skiing trip with pal Eve Arden and her husband (John Ridgely), she meets Army officer George Brent on the slopes. Bashful with eyes avoiding the bedroom, Stanwyck slowly wakes up, after spending the holidays with Brent and friends until pesky Watson interrupts. Stanwyck must discover herself in spite of the regulation of her café society past and stand up for what she really wants while keeping her self-respect, if not her old reputation.Stanwyck was at the height of her leading lady status when she made this in 1944 (held back for two years, although it was shown to men in the military) and the highest paid woman in America. This is also one of her most subtle performances, sweet yet honest about herself, devoted to her two sons, and tired of all the B.S. of society. Brent, a frequent Stanwyck leading man, goes well with her like butter does with bread, and is, as always, likable even if pain in the butt mother Watson thinks he's of the devil. The highlight of the film are the scenes between Stanwyck and Arden (their only film together!) which really shows what a real female friendship should be about. A bedroom scene with Arden and Ridgely (no double beds for this one) somehow slipped past the censors and features some amusing pillow talk. It's not just the bitter old ladies like Watson and her uppity friend Cecil Cunningham who gossip, but Stanwyck's supposed friends as well, which results in a scene with the strong Stanwyck we all have come to expect to finally explode. The conclusion between Stanwyck and her sons is appropriate for the time of war, if not satisfactorily in the romantic sense, it still holds promise and hope, and considering America was still at war when this was made, that is conclusion enough.

hyson I have an insatiable schwarm for Barbara Stanwyck. I love the way she looks, the way she speaks, her whole presence on screen. But one of my favorite things about her is that she consistently played women who, unlike the female leads in many of the films of her time, go toe to toe with their men in wit and resourcefulness. As a rule, a man playing opposite Stanwyck spends most of the film looking utterly gobsmacked -- or, as one played by Henry Fonda once put it, "cockeyed." She proved that even in the 1940's a woman could be warm and lovable, as well as sexy, without having to repent of having been a card sharper, a gangster's moll, a shoplifter, or a burlesque striptease artist.That's why I was so surprised to see My Reputation, in which Stanwyck plays a woman who has been sheltered all her life, and is not only conventional but meek and timid. I was also delighted to find that she does it quite well, keeping her voice soft and her smile restrained, and not overdoing the crying scenes, of which there are several.The film is also worthwhile for the look it offers at old money in the Chicago suburbs in the 1940's. The Stanwyck character's mother is a dragon, but not all bad; the members of the elite little social circle range from ill-natured prigs to good-natured bores to genuine friends. Most fascinating of all are the central character's two sons, ages twelve and fourteen. They are far more convincing and likable than a lot of child characters in classic Hollywood films, and in keeping with their upbringing and milieu, they are more innocent but also far, far more socially poised than children that age tend to be today.As enjoyable as this film is, however, it does have one serious false note -- spoilers coming -- and that's the love story. Yes, this is another one of those films which is billed as a love story in which the object of the central character's affections is, well, unlovable. They start him off as one of those conceited, swaggering alpha males whose version of sex appeal is to tell the woman -- since she can't apparently be expected to figure it out for herself -- what's wrong with her, when she wants to be kissed, and why he knows what's best for her better than she does (think Clark Gable in It Happened One Night or Robert Mitchum in The Grass is Greener). As tiresome as that is, when My Reputation's male lead finally starts being a little more gentle and respectful towards Stanwyck's character, it's not that much of an improvement. At that point he's merely a rather ordinary man with a regrettable mustache. The viewer is left wondering what she sees in him, especially since a supporting character named Frank -- a family friend as well as her financial adviser in her widowhood -- moons after her the whole time, thinks the world of her, and, from some angles, bears a resemblance to George Clooney.This may not be Barbara Stanwyck's best film, but it's pleasant to watch, and no weepier than it needs to be.

tday-1 Surprisingly,this film has never been set up as a woman's lib type film which it certainly is. Barbara follows all the conventional rules,marriage,children,then it all falls apart. Her husband dies,her two boys are leaving for boarding school,everything is all arranged but what is Barbara to do. Her mother wants her to be in permanent mourning like she has for 25 years and be her companion. Barbara tries to fill her life with volunteer work and fending off advances from her friends' husbands,who all seem to think she's accessible since she's a widow. The entry of George Brent as a new man on the scene wakes her up and makes the neighbors gossip/ Barbara has done nothing wrong but the rule of the day is she causing a scandal,even her sons are mad at her. Her pal Eve Arden talks her into a skiing trip where she finds romance with Brent. The director said Max Steiner's score was one of his less pompous ones and it's used well through the film,serving as a love song,triumphant march when Barbara goes to Brent's apartment and a beautiful farewell scene at train station. I loved the part where Barbra enters Brent's apartment and exclaims its' beauty when all of a sudden she sees the bedroom and the music stops with a thump. Definitely a movie to see,not on tape or DVD unfortunately,wish it were. By the way,the Max Steiner score was reused for The McConnel Story starring Alan Ladd and June Allyson.