Stella Dallas

I was unfamiliar with the story of Stella Dallas, so when I first sat down and began to watch the 1925 version, I was expecting a simple, and light hearted silent; 'a fun way to spend an hour, but will soon be forgotten', type of film. By the very end, I had tears in my eyes, and I suddenly wanted to run up to my mother, hug her close, and never let her go. Stella Dallas took a completely unexpected twist, and turned out to be one of the most moving, and bittersweet dramas of the silent era.

A believable and extremely talented cast, molds this film into the finest it can possibly be. Belle Bennett absolutely steals the show from everyone else. Her performance is unforgettable and heartbreaking. Even though her character makes some mistakes in the beginning, she has a big heart, and lots of love for her beloved daughter. We cry and grieve with her, as she tries to set things right, and fights for her daughter's happiness and well being. Her daughter, Laurel Dallas, is played by the soft, sensitive, and purely pretty actress Lois Moran. She struggles between the love for her mother and her beau (played by a young and handsome Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Ronald Colman is a natural at pantomime, and brought his character (Laurel's father, Stephen, who lives away in New York) to glowing life. Alice Joyce is a great actress, it's always nice to see her, and in this she plays the true love of Stephen Dallas. Unfortunately, her part is just a tad too small, but very effective.

If mother-daughter stories touch you, be sure to bring at least one whole box of tissues, because you WILL need them. I guarantee you, that by the time The End appears across the screen, you'll have teared up at least once or twice. One deeply feels for the characters and their troubles; not to mention, the famous ending is haunting.

The first film version of the Olive Higgins Prouty best seller.

Despite third billing, Belle Bennett stars as Stella and is very good in the role of her career. She does an amazing job of aging over a 20-year period and is very effective.

Ronald Colman stars (and gets tops billing) as Stephen Dallas, and Alice Joyce is Mrs. Morrison.

Lois Moran gets the role of Laurel and is excellent, starting out as a 10-year-old. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. plays the boy friend. They were both 16. Jean Hersholt is Ed Munn, Vera Lewis is a gossipy teacher, and Beatrix Pryor plays Fairbanks' mother.

Bennett never got another good role and died of cancer in 1932.

I did NOT know there was a version of "Stella Dallas" before the 1937 one starring Barbara Stanwyck. And yet here is a silent film version from 1925 that tells the tell for the first time.

I am not sure why Ronald Coleman got top billing in this film. The film is owned and ruled by the great job Belle Bennett does. Bennett does a great job portraying the title character, Stella Dallas.

If you are familiar with the 1937 version then there will be no surprises for you here. The story is almost exactly the same.

Bennett wants to improve her social status and marries Coleman, but, just like Molly Brown, she can't separate from her upbringing and rough manners. Society does not accept her and they consider her to be a clown. They have a daughter played by Lois Moran. Moran is also exceptional as the daughter trying to hide how much of a joke her mother is.

If you are in the mood for a light tear jerker, then the ending, where Bennett realizes she is hurting her daughter's chances of improving in life and pushes her away, while make you tear up. She secretly attends her daughter's wedding watching outside a window in the rain and leaves weeping but happy that her sacrifice has not been in vain.

Check out this Classic and let me know your opinion of Belle Bennett's performance and the overall picture. It does a great job and all done without sound!! A true Classy Classic!

"Stella Dallas" is a weepy film about a long-suffering mother who gives everything to do what's best for her child. This sort of picture was very common back in the day, with films like this, "So Big" and "Madame X". And, they proved popular enough that they were remade again and again. Apparently the public loved weepy movies about mothers!

As for me, I've seen the first remake of this. "Stella Dallas" (1937) was a very well made Barbara Stawyck vehicle and it was remade yet again with Bette Midler a couple decades ago. The 1925 version is the first...a pretty silent picture that might be best viewed with a box of tissues nearby!

When the story begins, Stephen Dallas (Ronald Colman) is rich and happy an looking to marry the neighbor girl. However, his father was apparently embezzling and when it made the newspapers, the old man killed himself. Stephen, wanting a fresh start, moved to a small mill town where he got a job as a lawyer for the company.

Stella (Belle Bennett) notices the handsome young man and invites him to dinner. Almost immediately after, they marry and have a little girl. However, all is not good, as the unsophisticated Stella never really fits in with society....and her new 'friends' do little to help her. She is, essentially, a bit rough around the edges...but you wonder why Stephen didn't help her with this.

Soon Stephen receives a promotion and when he returns home to tell Stella, he finds Mr. Munn in the house. Munn is a guy she met at the race track and she invited him home for dinner with them. Not surprisingly, Stella's not thinking about what others might think about her bringing a man home and Munn's beer drinking didn't do much to make Stephen like him! To make things worse, Stella refuses to go to New York for Stephen's new job...and so he goes alone...hoping that Stella and the baby will soon join him. But instead, years pass and Stella is still back in this small town with her child who will soon be a young lady. And, Stella is spending a lot of time with Munn...and local tongues are certainly wagging over this. And, Stephen was lonely as well and began seeing a local widow. Not surprisingly, although Stephen and Stella are still married, the days are numbered for that marriage. What's next and how does the child play into all this? See the film and find out for yourself.

I was surprised when I watched this film on the Criterion Channel. Why? Because usually silents are shown along with some incidental music but there is absolutely none here....just silence. It's not a huge problem, as some silents have had recent ill-fitting scores added to them....just something you might want to be aware of if you watch.

So is this version worth seeing? Absolutely. It's very well made...with a nice cast and production values. It was obvious that this was a prestige project for Samuel Goldwyn and it looks great. My only complaint, and it's small, is that you don't really totally connect with Stella, as she wasn't completely pitiable...and often made stupid choices.

I think Miss Stanwyck was a great actress, but when I look at the version of STELLA DALLAS that King Vidor directed her in twelve years after this silent version..... well, something always bothered me about it. WHY was she supposed to be such a monster? She was Barbara Stanwyck. All right, she wasn't dressed as beautifully as she was in THE LADY EVE, but being a little bit frumpy isn't against the law, especially when you look like Barbara Stanwyck.

But when Belle Bennett dresses up in this movie, she is a well-meaning horror, wearing stripes, frills, lace, feather, rings on her fingers, probably bells on her toes..... and a fat suit. You couldn't have gotten Miss Stanwyck into a fat suit. She had her eye on her career. But Belle Bennett had her eye on making this movie as good as possible, so she becomes a fat monster, loving her daughter and utterly clueless. It's a great performance.

Also great is the way Henry King directs the sequences that take place in the mill town. No one had a better eye for the details of small town life than Henry King, from TOL'ABLE David through WAIT TILL THE SUN SHINES NELLIE. Jean Hersholt also has a good role as Ed Munn, and a lovely comic turn on the train into the city. Ronald Colman is fine, exuding the melancholia that he used throughout the 1930s whenever he had to run away to the Foreign Legion or face the guillotine. Alice Joyce is sedate and charming, a fine counterpoint for Bennett. Lois Moran, as Stella's daughter is adorable, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., in his first real role, is excellent.

There are a number of plot points that must be gotten through and which are better indicated in Frances Marion's script than in the 1937 version ... even though some points seem to be skipped over, they are butchered worse in the sound version. Something always seems to be missing from these weepers. It may be that it is simply that I am not able to appreciate the fine points of these things, but there you go.

However, despite these minor failings, the above-mentioned virtues, as well as the classic final shot of Stella watching the wedding through the window, make this is a great film, and it is only my annoyance at some of the minor failings of the translation from book to film that keeps me from considering this perfect.

But it is ten times the film that the sound remake is. Even if the voice I hear in my head when Miss Bennett moves her lips is that of Barbara Stanwyck.