Quite early vintage 7.5 x 9.5-inch sepia-tone portrait dating to her pre-brunette days in the early 1930s, boldly signed and inscribed in green fountain pen. In good condition, with gentle edge wear. Born of a long line of actors, dating to the 18th century, Joan Bennett made her Hollywood debut alongside her parents and two sisters in The Valley of Decision (1916), aged only five.  After a long hiatus, she returned to the screen in the early 1930s, headlining in enjoyable programmers like Me and My Gal (1932), Little Women (1933) and Pursuit of Happiness (1934).  While always popular with audiences, it wasn't until she dyed her blonde hair jet black for a role in Trade Winds (1938) that she achieved bona fide icon status, thriving in "dark" bad girl roles throughout the 1940s.  She was especially effective in a series of melodramas directed by Fritz Lang: Man Hunt (1941), The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), and The Secret Beyond the Door (1948). In 1950, she again switched professional gears, abandoning femme-fatale roles for the part of Spencer Tracy's ever-patient spouse in Father of the Bride (1950).  Later in life, she made several contributions to the horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres, starring on T.V.'s "gothic" soap opera "Dark Shadows" (1965-1971), and in House of Dark Shadows (1970), Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977), and This House Possessed (1981).

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