Stella Dallas (1937)

A working-class woman is willing to do whatever it takes to give her daughter a socially promising future.

Director:

King Vidor

Writers:

Sarah Y. Mason (screenplay), Victor Heerman (screenplay)

Stars:

Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Stella Dallas
John Boles	...	Stephen Dallas
Anne Shirley	...	Laurel Dallas
Barbara O'Neil	...	Helen Morrison
Alan Hale	...	Ed Munn
Marjorie Main	...	Mrs. Martin
George Walcott	...	Charlie Martin
Ann Shoemaker	...	Miss Margaret Phillibrown
Tim Holt	...	Richard Grosvenor
Nella Walker	...	Mrs. Grosvenor
Bruce Satterlee	...	Con Morrison
Jimmy Butler	...	Con Morrison - Grown Up
Jack Egger	...	John Morrison
Dickie Jones	...	Lee Morrison

Storyline

Working-class Stella Martin marries high-end Stephen Dallas and soon they have a daughter named Laurel. But Stephen's incessant demands of Stella to become what she isn't leads to their eventual separation. Stephen later marries Helen Morrison (his prior fiancée), and Laurel becomes the focus of Stella's life and love. Nothing is too good for Laurel as far as Stella is concerned. Determined to give her all the advantages, she takes Laurel on a trip to an expensive resort where Laurel makes friends with rich kids. After an embarrassing incident, Stella realizes that her daughter would go farther in life without Stella as her mother. Her subsequent sacrifice is shattering.

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Plot Keywords:

class differences | self sacrifice | mother daughter relationship | mill | wealth | 

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Taglines:

The emotional classic of the screen

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 August 1937 (USA)

Also Known As:

Als het moederhart spreekt

Filming Locations:

Samuel Goldwyn Studios - 7200 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$2,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Samuel Goldwyn Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The play version written by Harry Wagstaff Gribble and Gertrude Purcell had no Broadway, New York run.

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Goofs

Ed Munn's photo on Stella's mantle moves from being beside the flowers to being directly in front of them.

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Quotes

Stella Martin 'Stell' Dallas: I've always been known to have a stack of style!

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Connections

Referenced in Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (1997)

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Soundtracks

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles
(1919) (uncredited)
Music by James Kendis, James Brockman and Nat Vincent
Played on piano at the dance

User Reviews

Not for the unsentimental

I love this movie and have seen it time and time again. This doesn't have the control and grace of a Douglas Sirk melodrama (and it is certainly earlier than Sirk), but this movie still has "stacks of style" as Stella herself would say. Extremely well set up story even if it is a bit far-fetched in places. Barbara Stanwyck is, well... pretty much unbeatable. She is one of the few actresses who can walk that tightrope between trashy and classy and make the two not feel mutually exclusive. As much as her character is overblown or enlarged from reality, this role is one that is a good deal more complex than most. Stanwyck was not an actress who felt she had to play everything for sympathy with the result that the moments when you feel bad for her hit you even harder than you expected. The birthday party scene is triumphantly painful and not to be missed. Anne Shirley ,who plays Laurel Dallas, Stella's daughter, I would bet will be overly sweet for a lot of viewers (myself included) but her manufactured sweetness only brings the complexity of Stella herself to the fore. This film never really misses a beat. It knows what it wants to do and it does it as unapologetically as Stella would.