My Reputation

Of All the Dramatic Triumphs From Warners, This One is the Greatest!

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.