As for Ms. Bennett.....back then all performers were typecast, almost immediately, and hardly ever allowed out of their little niche. If I'm not mistaken, it was her sister Constance Bennett who was the light-hearted ingenue, and Joan Bennet was the serious, prim daughter of Society.
Bennett started out with fairly lackluster parts. She was blonde then and Constance had the limelight. I tend not to like blonde Joan. Every so often she has a couple of good scenes, but the films are generally so-so and she is just sort of there.
Brunette Joan (she wore a dark wig for "Trade Winds" and it proved so popular she turned brunette) is an entirely different matter. I'm not sure why, but her film roles got better. Much better.
I adore "Secret Beyond the Door"--my friend calls it the most Joan Bennett of all Joan Bennett films, but it's not her best work with Fritz Lang, IMHO. That I think was "Scarlet Street." Bennett's heartless Kitty is quite the piece of work (that scene where she's spitting grape seeds across the room is something else). "The Woman in the Window" is another must see.
Her absolutely best film work, IMHO, is in Max Ophul's "The Reckless Moment." It's next to impossible to find. They almost never air it and the only copy I have ever come across was a bootleg on eBay. It's a great little film noir and she and James Mason were superb.
Another albeit less than stellar work (it's pretty bad overall) is Jean Renoir's "Woman on the Beach." Robert Ryan is surprisingly inept, but Bennett and Charles Bickford are great.
Luciaphil (ardent Joan Bennett fan)
