Cool piece, Odie...

BS is the best. I really think that Barbara Stanwyck is the greatest American film actress. She had the largest range, she worked with practically all the great directors, and she somehow kept her emotional immediacy genuine and fiery all the way to the end of her career.

All of these are great choices. Also love two Capras: "The Miracle Woman," where she plays a compromised evangelist, "The Bitter Tea of General Yen" ----talk about erotic!--where she dreams of being ravished by Nils Asther's General.

They had an affair, apparently, her and Capra, and it shows. She's very touching in the underrated, nearly forgotten "Ever in My Heart," more than touching as the reformed thief in the Leisen/Sturges "Remember the Night." More erotica: her epochal striptease number, "Take it Off the E-String, Play it on the G-String" in "Lady of Burlesque," where she solves murders and does cartwheels.

Later Stanwyck gold: "the scissor scene" in that twisted Freudian/Mann western "The Furies." Two amazing Evil Barbara moments: pushing Anthony Quinn under an oil dyke in the terrific meller "Blowing Wild," and yanking away Eddie. G's crutches in a burning house at the end of "The Violent Men.

" And her pairing with Elvis in "Roustabout" is surprisingly effective--they have chemistry. Finally, two bookends: the look on her face as she watches Lolly get married at the end of "Stella Dallas" (her personal favorite). And, last but certainly not least, her deeply scary plea for senior citizen eroticism during her last monologue in "The Thornbirds.

" There's no other actress who could have played that scene so well. And yes, it's because she never relinquished her sexuality..

.maybe it stayed potent because it was so unfulfilled off-screen? Victoria Wilson has been working on a bio of Stanwyck for 20 years.

..one of those legendary "I need another advance" things you marvel at.

How many more times does she need to look at every episode of "The Big Valley?" One more for the road, from "Golden Boy": "I'm my mother's girl," snaps Stany. Cool piece, Odie.

..BS is the best.