Ageism in Hollywood

Although it is still true today, the '60s and '70s had very few roles for women that didn't fit the trope of a young ingenue. Especially in the past, the world of movies was unfairly inhospitable to ladies over 40. By contrast, men were allowed to age naturally and were rewarded with more serious, thoughtful roles as they grew older. Older men in movies were wise. Older women in movies were either matronly or evil.

Barbara Stanwyck flipped the script

However, in 1965, the then-58-year-old Barbara Stanwyck found refuge on TV's The Big Valley. The medium provided her with a new home, and she took shelter from the storm of being a "woman of a certain age" in Hollywood. Where she'd struggled to find film roles that suited her tastes, as Victoria Barkley on The Big Valley, Stanwyck was able to continue showcasing her commanding presence. She also commanded the respect of everyone on set, which may not have been the case had she chosen to pursue other creative outlets.

Hagsploitation

For instance, around this period, one of the few bankable genres for a woman of Stanwyck's age was horror. An entire subgenre rose to make use of aging starlets of Old Hollywood. This cycle of movies, called "hagsploitation," is also referred to as Grande Dame Guignol and hag horror. And while there are certainly examples of successful films within this subgenre, Barbara Stanwyck wanted more.

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Compared to contemporaries such as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, who willingly exploited their age in movies such as What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Strait-Jacket, Barbara Stanwyck wasn't willing to bend to producers' whims. Westerns, it seems, were more her style.

TV offered refuge

"I'm crazy about old movies and watch quite a bit of television," Stanwyck told The Kansas City Star in 1967. "I especially like the Westerns... both the movies and the competition, the series. I want to see what the competition's doing.

Horror had nothing to offer Barbara Stanwyck

As for horror, well, Stanwyck "really [didn't] care about doing the type of thing" Crawford and Davis found profitable during the era. She thought the trope of the murderous old biddy had already been played out by that point, and turned her nose up at her peers who continued to play those parts. 

"The problem is," said Stanwyck, "that they really don't write good roles for women anymore, and if they don't write them, where the hell are you going to get a role? Sure, I'd like to do movies, but when you get my age, you have to be realistic. It's a different plateau, and it's different to get a role in a movie."

Stanwyck's later-career goals

As for her dreams at that particular moment in her career, Stanwyck wanted one more bite at the apple.

"I'm not going to do a version of Mother Knows Best... But I would like one great part before I take the veil."