![]() ![]() I'd already seen the final and famous scene, and so thought it wouldn't have the impact on me it might otherwise have, but I was wrong. This material could have been maudlin to the point of dreadful if handled differently, but Stanwyck and director King Vidor deliver the goods without letting them soak first in sentimentality, and the result is a five-hankie movie. She plays the slovenly title character, ex-wife of a privileged and wealthy man, who decides to sacrifice her relationship with her own daughter (Anne Shirley) so that the daughter can have a better life. Maybe it should however.īarbara Stanwyck delivers, without exaggeration, one of the best performances I have ever seen in a movie in this gut-wrencher from 1937. I guess the moral of the Stella Dallas story is that romance is not like water, it does not seek its own level. Still they're as suited for each other as Boles and Stanwyck were not. He's as vulgar as she is, but he also is not a bad person, just not anyone's ideal husband. The other performance is from that scene stealer Alan Hale as the good time salesman who Stanwyck takes up with. This would have been her career role had she not also played Scarlett O'Hara's mother in Gone With the Wind. Barbara O'Neil was gracious and charming, and exhibits a discerning heart. Her scene with Stanwyck as Stanwyck tells her to take Shirley off her hands is a classic. Morrison the widow who became John Boles's second wife. Two other performances I liked in Stella Dallas. Stanwyck makes the ultimate sacrifice for a mother and tears at the audience's hearts. Stanwyck hits Stella on every level just right, especially when she realizes after overhearing some women on a train talking about how vulgar she is and realizing what harm she was doing to her now grown up daughter played by Anne Shirley. ![]() Though he wanted Ruth Chatterton to play Stella, he was more than pleased with Barbara Stanwyck's Oscar nominated performance. Goldwyn waited until he found the right actress for Stella before doing it again. Samuel Goldwyn had great success with the silent version of Stella Dallas, it was his biggest moneymaker as a silent film. They come from different worlds, Stanwyck and Boles, and even with the birth of a daughter it doesn't bring them together. For Barbara Stanwyck as Stella Martin that was only the beginning when she married Stephen Dallas played by John Boles. Her problem is that she thinks she can marry it and her problems are solved. She also knows that she desperately wants some kind of class. Stella Dallas is probably one of the most complex roles in a soap opera for any female actress to play. ![]()
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