An executive in Universal studio turned down Yvonne De Carlo's request for the part of the waitress in A Double Life. He explained the way the system worked--Yvonne was rock candy, not dipped chocolates. They wanted to keep her in the stuff that sold and sold. Robert Siodmak felt otherwise and fought to keep her in the role for Criss Cross that producer Mark Hellinger had promised her before his tragic death. Siodmak doesn't ask Yvonne to play rock candy or a paint by numbers noir dame. In this picture, she proves she was a great actress--and wasted in those sand and sandals pictures.

Zsa Zsa Gabor belongs to a legacy of modern wit from sass mouth dames such as Anita Loos, Dorothy Parker, Mae West, and Tallulah Bankhead. She argued for a career--that there was more to life than just being a wife--three years before Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique. By her third picture, Moulin Rouge, Zsa Zsa became a star. She is uncorked champagne, bubbly and vivacious. And she steals everything but the camera.

Dolores del Rio choreographs a plot for revenge against Pat O'Brien with as much style as she exhibits in a Busby Berkeley dance number. In Caliente (1935) has a steady 'soak the rich' theme, along with a woman's thirst for revenge. Add in a superb cast and amazing white gowns from Orry-Kelly, the picture is as soothing as a day by the pool.

Carole Landis referred to her role in Turnabout (1940) as the only time she had 'more than an even chance to demonstrate ability rather than matter'. In a screwball picture where husband and wife swap bodies, Carole moves differently and takes up space. Carole's performance makes a farce of the decorous feminine ideal. Joseph Breen and the Legion of Decency gave Hal Roach so much grief over the production that the studio nearly shut down for good.

Film historians often point out that 1946 was a record year at the box office. Producer Joan Harrison offered to remind the moguls and audiences that Hollywood was still a woman's town after the men returned from the war. Nocturne is jammed with women who make the dream factory run. In one scene after another, George Raft talks to a collection of sass mouth dames who put him on notice during his murder investigation. Lynn Bari might be as hardboiled as they come, but she's no film noir cardboard cut out. She gets the best lines and the best of George Raft.

Although many critics dismiss A Woman's Secret (1949) as a misfire in the Ray canon, it gives viewers something we don't see often enough on the big screen--an intense relationship between two women that men find inscrutable. The coded affair between Maureen O'Hara and Gloria Grahame sours and ends up with a shot fired. Unfortunately, production was distracted by the drama of Howard Hughes's takeover bid for RKO, which resulted in a delayed release at the box office.

My guest for this episode is Matt Harris, archivist and fellow Joan Crawford obsessive. Matt raises questions about camp, stardom, and how fans engage with a star's legacy. My biggest preoccupation in the film is with the Erik Guide Haupt portrait of Joan from 1931 that appears throughout the picture. Joan Crawford stands in front of it to remind the audience that she's the real work of art.

Before she became the first woman television mogul, Lucille Ball was queen of the 'B' pictures in RKO studio. Beauty for the Asking might have a low budget, but it carries a far more subversive message than many prestigious 'A' pictures. Loosely based on the life of Helena Rubenstein, it shows how Lucy moves from beauty operator to a business magnate once she invents a cold cream. Just imagine what The Women (1939) would have been like had Mary Haines and Crystal Allen joined forces and showed Stephen the door. That's what we find here in this little gem.

As part of the 'unholy trio' of gossip columnists, including Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, Sheilah Graham wrote juicy articles about the stars during the golden age of Hollywood. In 1937, she began a passionate affair with F Scott Fitzgerald that lasted until the author's death in 1940. The film version, based on Sheilah's bestselling memoir, gives us a glossy romance, rather than the reality of Scott's addiction. Deborah Kerr gives a lush performance as the columnist. Gregory Peck gets to the heart of why Sheilah fell for him, and why she stayed, despite his epic benders.

Whether in a rubbish heap or grey industrial horizon of the Panama Canal, love blooms wherever Carole Lombard shines her blonde halo. Carole plays Maggie King, a nightclub singer who poses as a beauty operator for free passage to California. When she meets a soldier on his last day in the Army, she falls for him like a ship's anchor. Swing High, Swing Low balances screwball and melodrama better than any other picture, and arguably, Lombard gives her best performance. Maggie King makes a star out of a mug, played by Fred MacMurray. And what does he do to thank her?

He forgets about her the minute it happens.