Stella Dallas (1937)
I love Barbara Stanwyck, and Stella Dallas is why. If you’ve never seen a Barbara Stanwyck movie, or can count on your right hand how many black-and-white movies you’ve seen, this is a great classic to add to your list. You might get a new favorite actress out of it, and you just might find you like old movies!
Stella Dallas is the story of a poor woman who wants, more than anything, to be a member of high society. She sets her sights on a handsome, wealthy businessman, John Boles, but when they get married and start a family, she doesn’t find herself living in paradise. Her coarse ways often embarrass John, and they fight more often than not. When they separate—which wasn’t done very often in the 1930s—Stella continually sacrifices to give her daughter a better life.
There are countless scenes that will have you dissolving into a puddle of tears. While waiting for Anne Shirley’s friends to arrive for her birthday party, mother and daughter try to make each other feel better about the empty party, when unbeknownst to them, the girls have all cancelled because Barbara’s an embarrassment and a bad influence. The constant struggle to give her daughter everything is evident with every breath Barbara takes; in the party scene, she utters a throwaway line, “I’ll fix it,” but it’s such an automatic reflex for a mother to say to her child. As the film progresses, Barbara starts to embarrass her daughter, and the stabbing pain she feels when she finds out that Anne wants a better life than she can give her is tragic. In addition to the extremely famous ending, there’s another well-known scene, during which the two girls listen to other women making fun of Barbara’s appearance and manners. Barbara and Anne both pretend they haven’t heard the ridicule and hope the other one hasn’t heard it either.
Barbara Stanwyck’s performance in this film is not only the best performance of her career, it’s one of the best screen performances I’ve ever seen. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 1938 Oscars, but was beaten out by Louise Rainer in The Good Earth, one of the great travesties in Oscar history. Barbara used every range of human emotion in her performance, and she wasn’t even rewarded with a make-up Oscar the following year, as often happened. Barbara Stanwyck never won a competitive Oscar. It gave us great pleasure here at Hot Toasty Rag to right this dreadful wrong and award the 1937 Best Actress Rag to Miss Stanwyck.
I’ve read the original novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, and Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason greatly improved the story. Had the novel been directly translated on film, it wouldn’t be a good movie at all! Alfred Newman wrote a tragic, emotion-evoking theme; I usually start crying during the opening credits! And every actor involved gave wonderful performances, balancing the line between realism and the classic glamour of an old movie.
My gripes with the Academy aside, this film is incredible and heartbreaking. If you don’t use up an entire box of Kleenex, go sort out any outstanding issues with your mother and then watch it again—preferably with her and her own box of Kleenex.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Classic Movies Kristine Rose" for posting!
Be sure to read Hot Toasty Rag's review of the original novel Stella Dallas here!
More Barbara Stanwyck movies here!
Stella Dallas is the story of a poor woman who wants, more than anything, to be a member of high society. She sets her sights on a handsome, wealthy businessman, John Boles, but when they get married and start a family, she doesn’t find herself living in paradise. Her coarse ways often embarrass John, and they fight more often than not. When they separate—which wasn’t done very often in the 1930s—Stella continually sacrifices to give her daughter a better life.
There are countless scenes that will have you dissolving into a puddle of tears. While waiting for Anne Shirley’s friends to arrive for her birthday party, mother and daughter try to make each other feel better about the empty party, when unbeknownst to them, the girls have all cancelled because Barbara’s an embarrassment and a bad influence. The constant struggle to give her daughter everything is evident with every breath Barbara takes; in the party scene, she utters a throwaway line, “I’ll fix it,” but it’s such an automatic reflex for a mother to say to her child. As the film progresses, Barbara starts to embarrass her daughter, and the stabbing pain she feels when she finds out that Anne wants a better life than she can give her is tragic. In addition to the extremely famous ending, there’s another well-known scene, during which the two girls listen to other women making fun of Barbara’s appearance and manners. Barbara and Anne both pretend they haven’t heard the ridicule and hope the other one hasn’t heard it either.
Barbara Stanwyck’s performance in this film is not only the best performance of her career, it’s one of the best screen performances I’ve ever seen. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 1938 Oscars, but was beaten out by Louise Rainer in The Good Earth, one of the great travesties in Oscar history. Barbara used every range of human emotion in her performance, and she wasn’t even rewarded with a make-up Oscar the following year, as often happened. Barbara Stanwyck never won a competitive Oscar. It gave us great pleasure here at Hot Toasty Rag to right this dreadful wrong and award the 1937 Best Actress Rag to Miss Stanwyck.
I’ve read the original novel by Olive Higgins Prouty, and Victor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason greatly improved the story. Had the novel been directly translated on film, it wouldn’t be a good movie at all! Alfred Newman wrote a tragic, emotion-evoking theme; I usually start crying during the opening credits! And every actor involved gave wonderful performances, balancing the line between realism and the classic glamour of an old movie.
My gripes with the Academy aside, this film is incredible and heartbreaking. If you don’t use up an entire box of Kleenex, go sort out any outstanding issues with your mother and then watch it again—preferably with her and her own box of Kleenex.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Classic Movies Kristine Rose" for posting!
Be sure to read Hot Toasty Rag's review of the original novel Stella Dallas here!
More Barbara Stanwyck movies here!
Hot Toasty Rag Awards:
Best Actress of 1937: Barbara Stanwyck
Best Adapted Screenplay
Hot Toasty Rag Nominations:
Best Picture
Best Musical Score: Alfred Newman
Best Actress of 1937: Barbara Stanwyck
Best Adapted Screenplay
Hot Toasty Rag Nominations:
Best Picture
Best Musical Score: Alfred Newman