I Found Stella Parish

A film about an actress's past. Stella Parish is among the best-known names on the London stage. Her play is a hit, the house is full and everyone is talking about her. Then one night she walks out and disappears. The reason is her daughter: a small child whose existence Stella has kept from everyone. There is also a passage in her past she does not want given to the press. The two board a ship for America. A journalist is aboard and notices. What the film is interested in is the tension between fame and privacy: the woman hides the truth to protect her career, and hiding it leaves her more exposed. The journalist's attitude also changes across the story. Kay Francis plays Stella; Ian Hunter and Paul Lukas are in the cast. Francis was the studio's highest-paid actress at the time and was known for melodrama of this kind. Mervyn LeRoy directed. It falls in the years when Hollywood's censorship rules were strictly enforced, and the narrative leaves some passages at the level of implication. A typical example of its period for anyone who likes classical Hollywood melodrama and 1930s studio cinema. For a viewer expecting a modern manner, the emotional pitch is high and the plot leans on coincidence.