Stella Dallas

Factory worker Stella Martin is eager to improve her social standing. Due to a combination of circumstances, she impulsively marries rich factory owner Stephen Dallas. Despite their incompatibility they welcome their beloved daughter Laurel soon after. Laurel grows up in her mother’s care, who wants to give her daughter everything she never had. But then it seems that Stella’s refusal to conform, her style and unrefined behaviour, stands in the way of that future.

In the role of Stella, Stanwyck offers one of her most lived through and heart wrenching performances as a mother who gives up her own happiness for her daughter. “My task was to convince audiences that Stella’s instincts were fine and noble even though, on the surface she was loud, flamboyant, and a bit vulgar.” Barbara Stanwyck wanted to honour Stella Dallas, one of her most misunderstood characters. And she does so with pathos and with a profundity that continues to resonate long after the end scene. Stella’s teary eyes in the streaming rain is etched in the cinematic memory. Bittersweet and unforgettable, but make no mistake: her tears flow with happiness, not sadness. STELLA DALLAS is a gem from the genre of the maternal melodrama, which told stories from unsung heroines who self-sacrificed out of love – mothers.

Stanwyck was the Golden Hollywood actress par excellence, who could convincingly portray no-nonsense women. From careerwomen to femmes fatales and in STELLA DALLAS a mother who leaves the working class to enter the beau monde, but who never feels accepted. Barbara Stanwyck plays Stella with an unequalled perfection. Crude, cheap, common… and magnificently mother.