My Reputation is a 1946 wartime love story, directed by
Curtis BernhardtCurtis Bernhardt was a German film director born in Worms, Germany. Some of his American films were called "woman's films" including the Joan Crawford film Possessed . Bernhardt trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film director in 1926...
.
Barbara StanwyckBarbara Stanwyck was an American actress, a star of film and television, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
portrayed Jessica Drummond, an upper-class widow from
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
who innocently falls in love with an army officer (
George BrentGeorge Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, to a family with a history of British Army service...
), much to the consternation of her gossipy friends and domineering mother (
Lucile Watson-Career:Watson began her career on the stage debuting on Broadway in the play Hearts Aflame in 1902. Her next play was The Girl With Green Eyes, the first of several Clyde Fitch stories. At the end of 1903 Lucile appeared in Fitch's "Glad of It"...
). Her romance also pits her against her two teenage sons (
Scotty BeckettScott Hastings "Scotty" Beckett was an American child actor. He is best remembered for his parts in the Our Gang and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series.-Early career:...
and Bobby Cooper). This was an adapted from Clare Jaynes' novel
Instruct My Sorrows by Catherine Turney.
Jessica Drummond (Stanwyck) is comforted by the executor of her husband's estate, lawyer Frank Everett (
Warner AndersonWarner Anderson was born in 1911, and had a small part in a film in 1915. He had supporting parts in several films through the years but didn't become a household name until he played Matthew Swain in Peyton Place. He died in 1976.-Partial Filmography:...
), who's been a family friend for years and, later, shows an interest in dating "Jess".
My Reputation is a 1946 wartime love story, directed by
Curtis BernhardtCurtis Bernhardt was a German film director born in Worms, Germany. Some of his American films were called "woman's films" including the Joan Crawford film Possessed . Bernhardt trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film director in 1926...
.
Barbara StanwyckBarbara Stanwyck was an American actress, a star of film and television, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
portrayed Jessica Drummond, an upper-class widow from
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
who innocently falls in love with an army officer (
George BrentGeorge Brent was an Irish film and television actor in American cinema.-Early life:He was born George Brendan Nolan in Raharabeg, County Roscommon on the opposite bank of the River Shannon from the town of Shannonbridge, County Offaly, Ireland, to a family with a history of British Army service...
), much to the consternation of her gossipy friends and domineering mother (
Lucile Watson-Career:Watson began her career on the stage debuting on Broadway in the play Hearts Aflame in 1902. Her next play was The Girl With Green Eyes, the first of several Clyde Fitch stories. At the end of 1903 Lucile appeared in Fitch's "Glad of It"...
). Her romance also pits her against her two teenage sons (
Scotty BeckettScott Hastings "Scotty" Beckett was an American child actor. He is best remembered for his parts in the Our Gang and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series.-Early career:...
and Bobby Cooper). This was an adapted from Clare Jaynes' novel
Instruct My Sorrows by Catherine Turney.
Plot
Jessica Drummond (Stanwyck) is comforted by the executor of her husband's estate, lawyer Frank Everett (
Warner AndersonWarner Anderson was born in 1911, and had a small part in a film in 1915. He had supporting parts in several films through the years but didn't become a household name until he played Matthew Swain in Peyton Place. He died in 1976.-Partial Filmography:...
), who's been a family friend for years and, later, shows an interest in dating "Jess". Her mother (Watson) has worn black for decades, since her husband passed, and would love for her daughter to follow her example. Jess has two young boys: Kim (Scotty Beckett), who is fourteen, and Keith (Bobby Cooper), who's twelve. Both go off to school leaving their newly widowed mother at home alone to deal with her loneliness. She tries to reconnect with the "old gang" that she and her husband socialized with while he was alive, but finds they remind her too much of him. She's even accosted by one them, George Van Orman (Jerome Cowan), when he brings her home one night. Fortunately, she has a real friend in Gina Abbott (Eve Arden), whom she runs to, and stays with, the night she was accosted. Gina and her husband Cary (John Ridgely) invite Jess to spend a week's vacation at Lake Tahoe with them.
When Jess finds herself lost somewhere on the slopes with a broken ski, she meets Major Scott Landis (Brent). He helps her back to the Abbott's lodge where she introduces them to Scott. After an evening of socializing, he spends the night downstairs on the sofa. That week, Jess and Scott get to know each other better, but she spurns his advances. Given her conservative upbringing, she accuses him of spoiling their good time, and she directs him to leave without an appropriate goodbye or discussion about any future.
Back in Lake Forest, just outside Chicago, Jess finds herself alone again except for her longtime housekeeper & cook Anna (Esther Dale). Frank comes to call and is invited to join them for dinner. However, just then the phone rings and it's Gina, who tells Jess than she and Cary are out at a club where they've spotted Major Landis. So, Jess asks Frank if they can go out instead of eating at home, and then goes to get all dressed up. Once at the club, Jess initiates bumping into Scott and finds out that he's been stationed in Chicago before he gets his orders for overseas, which could come at any time.
Another day, Scott asks Jess to meet him at his apartment before going out to dinner. And finally, after 50 minutes of the movie, we have idea of where it got its name. A friend of Jess's mother, Stella Thompson (Cecil Cunningham) sees Jess enter the Major's apartment, which later she evidently spreads as gossip. Of course, this becomes a subject of discussion among Jess's (and her former husband's) social friends, including Riette Van Orman (Leona Maricle), the lecherous George's wife, and eventually their children. In fact, upon returning for the holidays, Kim & Keith learn of their mother's "affairs" at the Van Orman's daughter Gretchen's (Ann E. Todd) party. There is a priceless scene in which Jess's mother confronts Scott on Christmas Eve while everyone, including Frank and the Abbotts, are busy trimming the tree. All the while, however, Jess's relationship with Scott could best be described as platonic, though Jess has begun to return some of Scott's affections for her, initially out of spite for the rumor mill. She later confronts it head-on, in the person of Ms. Van Orman.
Release
The film was made in 1944, on the heels of Stanwyck's great success,
Double IndemnityDouble Indemnity is an American film noir starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson. The film was directed by Billy Wilder and adapted by Wilder and Raymond Chandler from the novella of the same title by James M...
, but was not released in the US until 1946. It was released to members of the Armed Forces first.