Le sacrifice de Stella Dallas

"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.

A good tearjerker of a movie is one where the handkerchiefs applied are being used in rapid fashion. The eyes swell up, the nose becomes runny and the mouth flutters uncontrollably. Women aren't embarrassed to let the tears flow, but men try to hide their emotional state. In a darkened theater it's easy to do until the lights are turned on.

One of the all-time classic tearjerkers in cinema is the original and the remakes of Olive Higgins Prouty's 1923 novel 'Stella Dallas." The first version to make the big screen was November 1925's "Stellas Dallas." The film doesn't just pack an emotional wallop at the end of the movie, it contains a constant series of cry-your-eyes-out moments. The story of a mismatched couple with a small child has all the ingredients of becoming a Hallmark Movie weeper. When the husband, Stephen Dallas (Ronald Colman) is transferred to New York City, his wife, Stella (Belle Bennett) refuses to go. The husband succumbs to her wishes and leaves without the two of them. One important detail to the plot is Stella is far less refined than Stephen, and the cultural differences play a huge role in the future events, centered mainly around the child, Laurel (Lois Moran).

Film producer Samuel Goldwyn sold his personal share of his studio to a group of investors led by Joe Godsol in 1922, two years before the MGM merger. He then formed his independent Samuel Goldwyn Productions, renting out the Pickford-Fairbanks (United Artists) Studios to make his own movies. Goldwyn was known to have an exceptional eye for the type of stories that could potentially be blockbusters in the theaters. Once "Stella Dallas" premiered, the reviews poured in with a slew of very positive write-ups. Following the buzz on the street, "Stella Dallas" became the sixth highest box-office movie in 1925, a very strong year for movie releases.

Goldwyn signed reliable director Henry King to handle a cast where acting was so crucial to the emotional plot. The glue that held the entire production together was actress Belle Bennett. As a veteran in film since 1913, she lied about her age by ten years to secure youthful roles, which were the most numerous in the industry. During filming of "Stellas Dallas," her 16-year-old son William Howard Macy died. She had always said William was her brother to hide her true age. When it came out she was 34 rather than 24, Bennett was relegated to mother roles after "Stella Dallas." With the loss of her son, however, Bennett became especially close to the movie's 16-year-old co-stars, Lois Moran and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.. Bennett's film career lasted six more years before, tiring of playing the mom, returned to vaudeville. During one performance in Philadelphia she collapse on stage, a sign she was not well. She recovered, acted for a short time again, before dying in late 1932 of cancer at the age of 41.

"Stella Dallas" also proved to be the high point in young actress Lois Moran's career. In just her second movie, critics predicted this could be the beginning of a long, successful stardom. She had a short affair with F. Scott Fitzgerald, affecting the writer so much he rewrote the central character in 'Tender Is The Night' from male to female to closely resembled Moran. But her screen appearances ended in early 1930s when she married the United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Clarence Young.

Despite sharing a name with arguably the most famous star in silent movies, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Career in acting was no guarantee. Born in 1909 to Douglas and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully, he pursued an education until Paramount Pictures signed him at 13 to play a proposed Tom Sawyer movie, over his father's objections. The project never panned out, and he returned to school. A year later, he was seen in small roles earlier in 1925 before appearing in "Stella Dallas" towards the end in the wedding scene, his first visible role.

Prouty's sentimental book wasn't retired in the dustbin after the success of the 1925 movie. The story was brought back to the screen two more times: the 1937 classic with Barbara Stanwyck, and the 1990 with Bette Midler as Stella.

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.

Without question, the finest version of this classic "tearjerker". Belle Bennett will break your heart. The finale (watching the wedding in the rain) is an epiphany comparable to the end of IKIRU... This is a work that should--no, must--be made available for film lovers around the world.