She was excellent in this movie. A very sensitive, vulnerable performance, probably her best.
shareI thought she was kind of awful and wooden!
I was interested in seeing this, as it's practically the only top-flight movie she did...and while she's certainly beautiful, she doesn't have any of the qualities a natural actress possesses....(I guess, as I think of it, the most obvious of those qualities would include a subtle sense of exhibitionism combined with an emotional vulnerability, and a flexible sense of make-believe.)
Barbara Payton is severely LACKING in any sense of artistry....and her screen persona isn't strong enough to carry her into being even a compelling screen subject, on the basis of pure magnetism.
There's a reason she didn't appear in decent films. She's not a decent actress. (And I don't mean that in any way as to comment on her scrappy personal life.)
very well said. barbara payton is very mild onscreen indeed, and were it not for her sad private life would be completely forgotten today. its a nasty, masochistic little cult that surrounds her, and it reeks of pulpy adolesecent thrillseeking. like oggling girls on dime store detective mags in the fifties. its almost as if fans of the noir genre want to pin 'noir' characteristics on the private lives of its actors, somehow 'fleshing' out a certain meaning/reality to the fantasies themselves. i'd say veronica lake is the ultimate emblem in this regard, and how "l.A. confidential" revitalised interest in her faded star and tragic life. payton reminded me a little of a lower case Lana Turner, who is also included in this little subcategory of hollywood femmes who spilled offscreen into the shadier LA noir world. gail russell....james ellroy likes these women, too. black dahlia syndrome.
shareI just watched the movie and was surprised at how good Barbara was. She could have been a major star if she had wanted to be. To think she only had 17 years to live.
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She was OK, but seemed forced in the high emotional scenes.
Think of what, say, Bette Davis would've done with that part!