US 106m Dir: King Vidor Key Cast: Barbara Stanwyck
Stella Dallas is an unusual film which is hard to define. Essentially it's a character study of the titular Stella played by Barbara Stanwyck.
Stella is a working class woman determined to better herself and she sets her sights on mill executive Stephen Dallas. After the birth of their daughter Stephen moves to New York and Stella elects to stay in Massachusetts with daughter Laurel. She finds herself having a strong maternal instinct and gradually begins shifting her ambitions to move up in society on to her daughter.
Stella is a really complicated character. At the very beginning of the film she is quite likeable and the romance between her and Stephen feels quite convincing. Over time though it's clear any interest she had in the man has gone and she is determined to try to be a social climber. Her daughter changes things though and this is where Stella becomes most conflicting as she remains a pretty horrible woman but she does everything she can to help her daughter which is admirable.
My biggest issue with this film is that there isn't really a great deal of plot. The whole film is set up for Stella to give her her relationship with her daughter to improve Laurel's life but it takes an age to get there. There's no more than an hour worth of story to tell and the middle section in particular feels really dragged out.
The big talking point of the film is Barbara Stanwyck who is superb as the lead character. She manages to carefully balance being someone who is pretty awful with occasionally being likeable and certainly being sympathetic. With any other actor in the lead role this film would have long been forgotten but it's Stanwyck that makes it memorable and worth watching.
An old-fashioned weepie which I didn't like as much as King Vidor's silent films but has an impressive central performance.
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