“The slender rapier
triumphs over the spiked bludgeon throughout the unfurling of the screen
conception of Olive Higgins Prouty's novel…” Mordaunt Hall, New York Times 17th
November 1925.
Well… I was warned I might need a box of tissues and if
even Mordaunt was so moved; you know there’s an irresistible sadness about to pass
in front of your eyes. What’s more accompanist Stephen Horne was assisted by Elizabeth-Jane
Baldry on harp – there’s no way I was going to get through this without, you know…
Directed by Henry King with an adaptation from Frances
Marion Stella Dallas walks that fine
line between melodrama and drama. It features characters bound by the invisible
constraints of their time and it perhaps a backwards view of social mores even
for 1925 but, the story was driven by grief as much as anything else.
 |
| Lobby card with bennett, Colman and Moran |
Olive Higgins Prouty wrote the novel soon after the death
of her three-year old daughter in 1923 and it is the story of the sacrifices a
mother makes in order to ensure her daughter’s success in life. I’m sure for Prouty
this was a case of if only; a tribute to the one lost and the lengths she would
have gone to if only she could have.
Any decent onto pure Victoriana is also offset by a fierce
performance from Belle Bennett whose own son had also died just before she got the part: her Stella rings very true. As Pamela Hutchinson noted during her
illuminating introduction, she had already launched a one-woman campaign to get the role and
rewarded Goldwyn and King with a display that must have resonated with so many
parents in an era when childhood mortality was far more commonplace.
Stella will do anything for her daughter even to the
extent of sacrificing her own happiness: her life means nothing if her daughter
cannot live well.
 |
| Belle Bennett |
The film begins with a parental sacrifice as Stephen
Dallas Senior (Charles Willis Lane), wealthy industrialist, takes his own life
after being accused of financial wrong-doing. His son, Stephen Jnr (Ronald
Colman) goes off to work in a remote corner of their business empire.
Away in this small town environment, Stephen mingles with
ordinary working folk from outside his class. He forms an attachment with one
lass, Stella, amidst some funny scenes on her family porch as her brothers try
and interfere – the film’s not all doom and gloom and its humour also brings
balance.
 |
| Stephen and Stella try to romance |
Stella and Mr Dallas wed and have a daughter, Laurel, and
yet it soon becomes apparent that the couple have different priorities: he
needs to drive the family business in New York whilst she is happy bringing up
her daughter amongst people she knows.
As gaps start to appear, not least in terms of geography,
Stella spends time with an earthy good-time fella name of Ed Munn (Jean
Hersholt who is so very good at playing characters with a soft moral centre…).
Needless to say this doesn’t sit well with Stephen who misses the companionship
of more refined women such as his former sweetheart Helen Morrison (Alice Joyce
– no relation) who is now married with three boys.
Back on small-town, Laurel’s teacher spies Stella having
fun with Ed and expels her from school leaving her humiliated when the rest
of the class fail to turn up for her 10th birthday party. There are
some sweet moments as Stella and Laurel (who is now Lois Moran) make the best
of a bad day… even Dad is not present but then why would he be; he’s got a
business to run.
 |
| One party and two guests |
The story moves on a few years and Laurel comes of age
still played by Lois Moran (just 16 at the time and later much favoured by F
Scot Fitzgerald according to PH). She forms an attachment with a young rich
boy called Richard Grosvenor (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr 15 at the time!) but is ashamed of her mother with her crude ways,
working class manners and dress sense.
Stella overhears some of the rich set mocking her and
begins to think she can only be holding her daughter back. By this stage she and
Stephen have run aground and knowing of his attachment to Helen, Stella asks
her competitor directly for help…
I won’t go any further but the story becomes very focused
and desperately sad - perhaps an ode to lost children for whom a mother would
rather grieve when lost yet still alive rather than gone forever.
 |
| Doug Junior and Lois Moran |
Faced with such emotional extremes, Stephen Horne’s score
is restrained and melodic. He knows just how to under-score high emotions and
this was the third time I’ve seen him play in just over a week, each one a wildly
different film.
Elizabeth-Jane Baldry’s golden harp melded perfectly with
Stephen’s music and is a hugely variable instrument: a piano without the
keys but with an unique, taught beauty of its own. There really isn’t enough harp
in my life…
 |
| Ronald and Aunty Alice (maybe) |
Not sure exactly how transgressive things got but it certainly
wasn’t cheap emotionally and that is what sets it apart from mere genre: a genuinely-elevated play about grief and sacrifice. To this extent it's really all about Belle Bennett and her ability to channel her own pain into performance.
 |
| Belle rings true |
