this movie could have been a lot better with an attractive man in the George Brent part.he is one of the most dull and unattractive actors from that time period... (yes-and even when he was much younger) i'm still amazed that he came out of the Abbey Theatre in Ireland....his career has always perplexed me--he is just not appealing in any way at all.....and i don't like the self-confidant way he manhandled Barbara Stanwyck at the cabin--only someone really studly should ever be that self-confidant and even then....it was as nauseating as the "old friend" who forcibly kissed her in his car earlier in the film..

Any time I see a Stanwyck film I've never seen or am not familiar with I jump on it pretty quickly. I was never on-board with her being a sex symbol or bombshell or really that attractive but one quality she possessed was that she could act....and she could do it well. Stanwyck's husband dies and she's is expected to mourn in black forever and her mother continually tells her so. She's tired of being pushed into a corner and she decides to try things a little bit different. She goes with friends skiing and meets a man she falls head over heels for. After all this her circle of friends start to spread rumors about her and her reputation and how she's not acting like someone who should after the death of her husband.I think the one performance I took away from this was the mother character. She was a seriously nosey busybody who continually inflicted her old school wisdom about staying in mourning for her spouse for life. From her personality you can tell the reason why she did was cause no one would wanna deal with this old harpy. I mean she plays one of these characters who you just wanna smack through the screen. Barbara Stanwyck does her usual job of A grade acting so expect that.I think this film is a time piece of old standards in the way people thought back in the day. Watching, you'll be baffled at why it is or was anyone's business what this lady did 6 months after her husband died. She committed no crime. She just wanted to love again and get out of her previously sheltered life an spread her wings and try something different. Problem is that she has to deal with the "old standards" of the day. I can't imagine sitting back and taking any individuals take on my life and me just accepting or nodding my head in agreement. Thankfully, she gets some courage and bucks the system and the results are an improvement for her life.

My Reputation was the second of two films Warner Brothers did with Barbara Stanwyck that they showed to the Armed Forces when they were first made and released to the public in the post World War II years. Why My Reputation was so singled out as was The Two Mrs. Carrolls is a mystery to me. The only wartime connection with this film is the fact that George Brent is in the service. There was absolutely none with the other film.Bette Davis must have been otherwise occupied because this probably was something written with her in mind, especially with George Brent as the leading man. Stanwyck is a recent widow of a man who was bedridden for two years with a mysterious malady and she's if not quite as hot to trot as Vivien Leigh was as Scarlett O'Hara, Barbara is heading in that direction. That upsets her mother Lucile Watson who still wears black mourning for Barbara's dad.A vacation with friends John Ridgely and Even Arden in Lake Tahoe has her meeting Major George Brent who is on furlough. Barbara's in love, but when she meets Brent in his apartment within eyesight of one of her town's notorious gossipmongers, her reputation suffers.Given Code restraints it's kind of hard to write a script with honest and frank emotions. Lucile Watson is portrayed as something of a ridiculous figure and in the end she's almost miraculously rehabilitated in a fine scene with Stanwyck. Had My Reputation been made today, her reputation would have been in shatters, but Barbara would have told the town to do an impossible anatomical act. That would have been believable though as she really doesn't do anything wrong.If this was written originally for Bette Davis I think Bette was wise in passing on this.

Surprisingly,this film has never been set up as a woman's lib type film which it certainly is. Barbara follows all the conventional rules,marriage,children,then it all falls apart. Her husband dies,her two boys are leaving for boarding school,everything is all arranged but what is Barbara to do. Her mother wants her to be in permanent mourning like she has for 25 years and be her companion. Barbara tries to fill her life with volunteer work and fending off advances from her friends' husbands,who all seem to think she's accessible since she's a widow. The entry of George Brent as a new man on the scene wakes her up and makes the neighbors gossip/ Barbara has done nothing wrong but the rule of the day is she causing a scandal,even her sons are mad at her. Her pal Eve Arden talks her into a skiing trip where she finds romance with Brent. The director said Max Steiner's score was one of his less pompous ones and it's used well through the film,serving as a love song,triumphant march when Barbara goes to Brent's apartment and a beautiful farewell scene at train station. I loved the part where Barbra enters Brent's apartment and exclaims its' beauty when all of a sudden she sees the bedroom and the music stops with a thump. Definitely a movie to see,not on tape or DVD unfortunately,wish it were. By the way,the Max Steiner score was reused for The McConnel Story starring Alan Ladd and June Allyson.