Stella Dallas (1937)

Directed by King Vidor. Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Anne Shirley, Barbara O’Neill, John Boles, Alan Hale, Marjorie Main, Tim Holt, George Walcott.

Shameless soap opera with a sacrificial caricature at the center. Stanwyck plays that caricature—Oscar-nominated and widely considered a signature role for her, but not one of the actress’ great pieces of film work—a woman whose life has quite a few ups and precipitous downs, but will do anything for her daughter, Laurel (Shirley). A sentimental yet mechanical tearjerker bolstered by old-fashioned acting and hampered by two-dimensional characterizations, but at least with the lone exception of stuffy Boles as Stella’s wealthy husband, the “old-fashioned” refers to emotionally-appropriate theatricality. The lack of a cynical edge to Stanwyck and Shirley’s social climbing will make it a tough sell for those who don’t immediately choke up at the prospect of one-sided mother-daughter histrionics, and few would ever describe boring King Vidor as a master manipulator. The Olive Higgins Prouty novel was previously shot as a silent in 1925, and the story was updated in 1990 as Stella with Bette Midler.

59/100