STELLA DALLAS (1925)

Hiding in plain sight on a 2020 Warners Archive DVD of the Barbara Stanwyck/King Vidor 1937 STELLA DALLAS (listed on the back-cover as Vintage Featurette STELLA DALLAS) is director Henry King’s better 1925 silent.  A mediocre 16mm dupe and no music track, but still worth the effort.  (You may be able to find the out-of-print Sunrise Silents edition on-line.)  Little remembered Belle Bennett is even more believable than Stanwyck as a low-class gal who manages to hook a rich society type rebuilding his shattered life in a small town after his father’s suicide.  Incompatible from the git (unlike Stanwyck, you know she’ll never be able to change her spots), she refuses to move with him when his job sends him permanently to New York, their little girl staying with Mom.  But as the daughter grows, Stella comes to realize what’s best for the girl means giving her up to the father.  Frances Marion, adapting Olive Higgins Prouty’s novel, works this up into a fine set of waterworks, especially the last four reels beginning with a renunciation scene for Mom and Step-Mom, while a typically patient Henry King knows just when to push and when to back off.  He also has a dream supporting cast in Ronald Colman, teenage sweethearts Lois Moran & Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Jean Hersholt; far superior to the remake.  Both remakes if you include Bette Midler’s STELLA/’90.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Here’s Stanwyck in 1937; and full credit to King Vidor on that final tracking shot ending the pic.  And a link to the next collaboration for Henry King & Ronald Colman which comes (hurrah!) in near-mint condition, THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH/’26.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/stella-dallas-1937.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/09/winning-of-barbara-worth-1926.html

CONTEST:  A big emotional scene sees no one showing up when little Laurel Dallas throws a party.  It’s not the only 1925 release to use that idea.  Name the other No-Show Party scene of 1925 to win a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up of your choosing.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Hard to imagine now, but there were so many Mother Love stories in silent film (the pre-M-G-M Louis B. Mayer specialized in them), they all but constituted their own genre: Westerns; Thrillers; Slapstick; Mother Love.  See our Movie Tie-In book reprint cover above.