U | 1h 46 min | Drama | 1937
Director King Vidor’s “Stella Dallas” is about exchanging dreams: those we choose to exchange and those we’re compelled to. His film draws on Massachusetts-born Olive Higgins Prouty’s novel of the same name.
The daughter of a mill worker in 1919 Massachusetts, Stella (Barbara Stanwyck) dreams of the high life: dressing up, clubbing, and dividing her time between manicures at salons and dancing at concerts.
Stephen Dallas (John Boles) talks with Stella (Barbara Stanwyck), in “Stella Dallas.” (MovieStillsDB)
Stella snags a husband, Stephen Dallas (John Boles), who is wealthy all right, but wants less of high society than it wants of him. He ignores Stella’s obvious lack of social graces. But he’s put off by her insistent clutching at the trappings of wealth and her back-slapping bonhomie with low-class buffoon Ed (Alan Hale). Never mind that Ed has a heart of gold….