Stanwyck.

STANWYCK, by Axel Madsen (Harper Collins, 434 pp.) is the story of a strong-willed, talented actress whom Madsen describes as "a woman of allure, dogged calculation and repressed emotions, living in a struggle between her wish to give herself and her to be in control."

All this adds up to a complicated and not particularly attractive personality; as Madsen puts it in this expertly researched and very frank book, "the incarnation of grace and save-your-ass resilience that defined an era."

She was also secretive, often uncommunicative, an actress whom, in Madsen's words "lesbians in search of role models adopted as one of their own" and she belonged to the ultra-conservative wing of Hollywood politics, an integral part of the extremist lunatic fringe that ultimately embarrassed (and frightened) the major studios.

This is where Madsen's book becomes utterly fascinating and revealing. He traces Barbara's first marriage, to Frank Fay, and her second -- much publicized one to Robert Taylor, whom she tried to dominate and who eventually forced a divorce.

Barbara, at one time the highest paid actress in Hollywood, was one of the founding spirits of the vicious Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a group of staunch Republicans tied together by their fear of subversion and their willingness to publicly denounce their friends and colleagues as Communists.

Taylor, living in permanent fear of being seen as merely a "pretty boy," outdid himself in that respect (and eventually suffered the consequences when his denunciations boomeranged on him and his screen career).

Madsen does a near-perfect job in describing the political ambiance of the time, and how Stanwyck/Taylor fit into it, and he also does a good deal of long-distance psychoanalysis of their relationship, with Barbara coming out with more of the negatives. She knew how to act, she looked great, and was apparently hard as stone. Her behavior toward her (adopted) son was simply disgraceful and the book tries to explain it along with other of her aberrations.

But Madsen also gives full credit to her enormously active and successful career, highlighted by movies such as Double Indemnity, Stella Dallas, Golden Boy, Annie Oakley, The Lady Eve, Ball of Fire, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, The Two Mrs. Carrolls, B.F.'s Daughters, Sorry, Wrong Number, Walk on the Wild Side and her final appearance in TV's The Thorn Birds.

Madsen does a very clever job integrating and somehow explaining the Stanwyck story in terms of her time, the pictures she appeared in, the directors she worked with and, of course, the often bizarre attitudes she struck in her personal life, and particularly in her marriage to Robert Taylor.

By all standards, this is an excellent biography, full-bodied, well-informed and colorful. It recreates an era long-gone and Madsen's analysis of Barbara's movies, their plots and the people who surrounded her -- including her long-time secretary/publicist and perhaps dark angel, Helen Ferguson, whose real relationship with Barbara isn't really clear. In any case, Madsen catches the essence of the Stanwyck era and brings to life a personality who, if not exactly lovable, certainly made her distinct mark in Hollywood -- on and off the screen.