Stella Dallas

Stella, from the working class, hopes to rise by marrying the young manager at the mill. The marriage does not hold; he returns to the city and she is left with their daughter Laurel. As the girl grows, her mother's clothes, speech and manner become an obstacle in front of her. Stella understands this before her daughter does. The film is not interested in sacrifice. It is interested in class carried on the body: what Stella cannot do is not learn manners but prevent being read the moment she is seen. Its famous ending, the mother watching through a window in the rain, is the summary of that. The form is thirties melodrama: broad sets, costume doing the work of character, and scenes built directly on feeling. King Vidor directed, produced by Samuel Goldwyn. The source is Olive Higgins Prouty's novel, filmed once before in 1925. Barbara Stanwyck plays Stella and was nominated for an Academy Award; Anne Shirley, as the daughter, was nominated in the supporting category. Stanwyck plays it large, a choice that has been argued over, but the character's failure to go unnoticed comes precisely from there. Who it is for: viewers who like classical Hollywood melodrama and Stanwyck. Who it is not for: anyone who avoids emotional pressure. The film goes straight for tears near the end, and the father's side is barely questioned.