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Stella Dallas

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Stella Dallas

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Summary

A lowly mill worker devotes her time to ensuring her daughter has the best life can offer, only to see all her efforts backfire dramatically. Drama, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Anne Shirley, John Boles and Barbara O'Neill

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Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Tony Sloman

The magnificent Barbara Stanwyck never won a performance Oscar, the Academy making its usual reparation by presenting her with an honorary award in 1981. Stella Dallas is the movie for which she deserved the best actress Oscar, but that year not even Greta Garbo won for Camille, the honour going to Luise Rainer in Sidney Franklin's The Good Earth. Stella Dallas, the heroine of Olive Higgins Prouty's popular novel, is the ultimate soap-opera queen, a woman who, quite literally, sacrifices everything for her daughter's happiness, and this movie is the definitive version of the tale, despite a fine Belle Bennett/Ronald Colman 1925 silent version and a slightly ludicrous Bette Midler update in 1990. Stanwyck is brilliant, her own upbringing as a Brooklyn orphan giving added resonance to the story: the famous scene as she watches through a window while her daughter (played by Anne Shirley) gets married is one of the great highlights of movie melodrama.

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7.4/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameStella Martin DallasBarbara StanwyckStephen DallasJohn BolesLaurel DallasAnne ShirleyHelen MorrisonBarbara O'NeilEd MunnAlan HaleMrs MartinMarjorie MainMr MartinEdmund EltonRichardTim HoltCarrie JenkinsGertrude ShortCharlie MartinGeorge WalcottMrs GrosvenorNella Walker

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Crew

rolenameDirectorKing Vidor

Details

Released on

1938-02-07

Languages

English

Available on

video

Formats

Black and white

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