Stella Dallas (1937)
We all have those movies we know we’re supposed to like, but something about certain ones just…bugs us. Stella Dallas, while sporting great performances and sensitive direction, also contains an odd mix of sacrifice and vulgarity, only not necessarily in that order.
Stella is a working-class girl who marries rich man Stephen Dallas, wanting to better herself and lean how to behave properly. Except she doesn’t. She wears the tackiest of clothes and hangs out with the most irritating people, much to the chagrin of her husband. Ed Munn is a particular bad penny, turning up at the worst times, usually drunk.
Somehow or other, though, Stella and Stephen have a daughter, Laurel, but when Stephen decides to go into business in New York, Stella stays behind, making dresses for a living. Meanwhile, Stephen takes up with an old friend and wealthy widow, Helen Morrison, and her three boys, visiting Laurel whenever he can.
Stephen wants Stella to divorce him, but she doesn’t agree, vowing to give Laurel the best life possible, especially after she sees Laurel thriving with her dad. Unfortunately, since Stella can’t seem to be anything but cheap and embarrassing, she may have to fall on her figurative sword.
Aaaand therein lies my discomfort. While director King Vidor excelled at drawing out sensitive and nuanced performances from the actors he worked with, Stella Dallas is a rather thankless character. She’s basically static; her only real sincerity is her desire for Laurel to be happy and successful, while she herself remains cheap and vulgar. It makes the ending a big letdown.
Stephen is a sweet guy but rather ineffectual as a husband, or maybe he knew a losing game when he saw one and decided to bolt. Either way, he’s very passive and willing to let the women in his life raise his daughter even though he’s very good for her. It would be interesting to see where the movie could have gone if he had shown a little more backbone.
Then there’s Stella’s wardrobe. Oh. Golly. The clothes she makes for Laurel are pretty and charming, but hers look like something exploded. Big prints, big ruffles, big trim, weird lines, and no matter what everything looks squished and rumpled. There’s even one scene when she’s in the kitchen peeling potatoes while fighting with her giant ruffled sleeves and it’s too absurd to be funny. Stella’s fondness for scraggly feather trim is also overt; they’re so old they look more like spikes than feathers.
I know it's generally customary to communicate character through wardrobe, but zoikes. When simple explanations look mean and snarky, there’s something wrong. What’s so sad is we know Stella knows better than to do what she’s doing. So why does she keep doing it? Heck, she even gets worse as the movie goes on. It doesn’t make any sense.
On the other hand, Stanwyck’s performance is terrific. I’m not sure she was capable of playing a part badly, even if she was miscast or a movie was not so good. Anne Shirley as Laurel is wonderful; to be honest, Laurel was my favorite character in the movie. I just wish her mother hadn’t been so obscured by her awful wardrobe and that she actually got to succeed instead of basically fading into the background.
Stella Dallas is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Not rated.
My grade: B
Principal cast: Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley, Barbara O’Neil, Marjorie Main, Alan Hale, George Walcott, Ann Shoemaker, Tim Holt, Jimmy Butler
Directed by King Vidor.
Written by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, Olive Higgins Prouty (novel)