To celebrate Barbara Stanwyck's 100th birthday, Sony will release a special DVD edition of the classic 1940 film
Golden Boy.Stanwyck went to bat with the studio to insure the title role was played by a young actor named William Holden. Holden never forgot her kindness and on her birthday every year for the rest of his life, he sent her roses. Cinema Retro will review the film in the near future. The release date for the DVD is November 13. Here is Sony's official press release:
Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment (SPHE) marks the 100th birthday of legendary
four-time Academy Award nominee and honorary Oscar winner Barbara Stanwyck with
the November 13 DVD debut of Golden Boy, the
dynamic story of a promising violinist (Academy Award winner William Holden) who
jeopardizes his career by moonlighting as a prize-fighter. Stanwyck, whose
career spanned over six decades, gives another of her indelible performances
(which include Baby Face,
Stella Dallas, The Lady Eve, Double Indemnity, Sorry, Wrong Number,
TV’s “The Big Valleyâ€) as the woman who tries to convince Holden to give up his
musical ambitions for the glory of the boxing ring.
The bonus
materials include three vintage short subjects: The Kangaroo Kid, a 1938 color cartoon
spoof of Golden
Boy; the 1940 two-reeler Pleased To Mitt You, one of the “Glove
Slingers†series of comedy shorts with Shemp Howard (of The Three Stooges); and
the August 1, 1930 edition of Screen
Snapshots, which features a 23-year-old Stanwyck being taught to play
golf by fellow actor Ricardo Cortez. The DVD also contains her very first
dramatic TV appearance: the western drama Sudden Silence, a 1956 episode of “Ford
Television Theatre†that has been unseen for 50 years.