Stella Dallas(1937)- User Reviews

Stanwyck finally got the recognition she deserved with an Oscar nomination, her first, for this role. It's a soapy story, a silent film previously and remade several times, but somehow, we're care for Stella more here than in any other version. Even Bette Midler was too overblown, but Stanwyck's quiet moments, where we can see the wheels turning, are most fascinating(watch them spin as she puts on cold cream, unpacks a lunch for John Boles or suddenly understand that her sense of fashion is laughable to others). Alan Hale Sr in his best, unaffected role as well -- Anne Shirley has a few excellent scenes but is mostly doing a starlet turn (her hands fly up to her face and the way she cries is surface)- overall, her performance doesn't age well. She may be Hollywood's vision of teen girls in the late 30s but somehow we get very believeable little sisters in MEET JOHN DOE just a few years later. Barbara Hale is a porcelin actress but that's all she needs here - John Boles(I never got his appeal)as the apple of Stella's eye, is an upper middle class stooge and somewhat of a drip, but well cast as an image of someone who's successful and a natural social climber despite the Depression. Intimate cinematography and direction...but this would've been another forgotten programmer today if it hadn't been for Stanwyck's very human turn to find something better for herself and her daughter. 3.5 stars