Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Stella Dallas (1937)

Director: King Vidor

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A pretty millworker with her mind on upward mobility via a suet-faced, sexless millionaire's son (Boles), Stella (Stanwyck, wonderful) turns from radiant grisette into a restless wife who sublimates frustration into maternal martyrdom and ever more outrageous dress. Meanwhile husband Stephen flees to a wealthy and conveniently widowed old flame who epitomises pedigree breeding and impeccable (but mean-spirited) good taste. The film stays tantalisingly undecided whether Stella's vulgarity and wild narcissism are a fatal flaw or a snook knowingly cocked at country-club dullness and decorum; and Stanwyck's extraordinary performance keeps open the cleft between weepy pathos and mocking defiance to the very end when, alone outside in the rain, she spies on her daughter's high society wedding through a window, then turns from the puppet-show, striding, smiling enigmatically, towards the camera.

Author: SJo 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: King Vidor

Producer: Samuel Goldwyn

Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley, Alan Hale, Barbara O'Neil, Tim Holt, Marjorie Main full cast

Duration: 105 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.