“STELLA DALLAS ” was made in 1937 based on the novel Stella Dallas, by Olive Higgins.
Director : King Vidor
Writers : Olive Higgins Prouty & Harry Wagstaff Gribble
STAR CAST: Barbara Stanwick …. Stella Martin Dallas
John Boles …. Stephen Dallas
Anne Shirley …. Laurel Dallas
Barbara O’Neil …. Hellene Morrisson Dallas
Alan Hale …. Ed Munn
The movie basically depicts the coarse and somewhat vulgar nature that the protagonist Stella Dallas inherits from her father and how her teenage daughter Laurel copes with it. Laurel slowly learns about her mother’s abnormal nature and character once she starts mingling with other people.
The movie “Stella Dallas” shows how the little daughter is devoted to her mother. The mother is very mean and just good for nothing until she realizes how much she loves her kid. She finds amusement in vulgarity, so was her companion, the riding master Ed Munn. It is through this companionship that Stella Dallas is distanced with her husband and friends. Her daughter is also refused admission due to her mother’s conduct. Stella liked wearing unusual dresses to get attention. She doesn’t find anything unusual in keeping an untidy house. Stella applied heavy make-up coupled with odd attires and thought it good enough to attract her husband who was living alone at New York . Laurel gets her quite nature and character from her father is in contrast to her mother but altogether a faithful and loyal daughter.
There are many moments in the movie which reflect Stella’s thoughtlessness and carelessness. Like the one when none of Laurel ’s friends turn up at her birthday party attributing to her mother’s indiscreet ways. Stella also realizes it but the daughter takes it bravely, holding back the tears. Stella shows glimpses of steely nature, laughing heartily just when she felt like crying. The daughter takes solace in her mother’s lap.
The motherhood in Stella finally shows up when she sees her daughter to the railway station. Laurel was joining up her father away in New York . She realizes how her life will be stale and unlively without the presence of her charming little thing in her abode.
She runs after the train in which her child leaves finally, dreading the void created in her life.
