DVDFile

This is a wishlist release for many vintage TV-on-DVD fans. The Barbara Stanwyck Show (originally called The Barbara Stanwyck Theatre) was an anomalous, one-season enterprise, a collection of half-hour dramas hosted by the award-winning actress. Stanwyck won an Emmy for her work on this series (her Emmy Awards acceptance speech is actually included on this DVD set), but the show disappeared nearly as quickly as it started: After airing for one season, the show never went into syndication and never continued its efforts to bring legitimate drama to nighttime television programming.

However, in approaching this show in hindsight, this writer found that The Barbara Stanwyck Show is as ambitious as it is uneven. Trying to do for legitimate melodrama what Hitchcock did for suspense, this first volume of the show on DVD has moments of intrigue - mostly anchored to the series' many high-profile guest stars - but ends up being relatively dramatically thin, considering the beloved reputation the show has in certain old-fashioned TV appreciation circles.

Part of the show's faltering sentiment lies in what appears from today's perspective as cheesiness. Take the first episode here: The Key to a Killer. In this episode, Stanwyck plays a deputy to her husband's sheriff, and when said sheriff falls ill, she is set in charge of guarding a convicted killer (played by Vic Morrow). Perhaps at the time of the show's broadcast, it was considered edgy and provocative, but from a post-Silence of the Lambs perspective, it's notable - if for the rapport between Stanwyck and Morrow - but not inherently entertaining.

The same is the case for the rest of these episodes, to boot. Again, when big star power is brought in, the efforts stand out a bit - Lee Marvin in Confession being the best example of this - but for the most part, The Barbara Stanwyck Show: Volume 1 is a DVD edition for die-hard fans alone. I can't deny that the show may have been a harbinger of things to come - if it isn't a good show, it's by all means important - but as a standalone release, this writer must admit to having wanted more out of it.

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