Silent Movies & Early Sound Films on DVD

Excerpt
STELLA DALLAS

Belle Bennett (Stella), Ronald Colman (Stephen), Lois Moran (Laurel), Jean Hersholt (Ed), Alice Joyce (Mrs Morrison), Vera Lewis (principal), Douglas Fairbanks, Jr (Richard), Beatrix Pryor (Richard’s mother), Charles Lane [not “our” Charles Lane] (Dallas).

Director: HENRY KING. Screenplay: Frances Marion. Based on 1923 novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. Photography: Arthur Edeson. Film editor: Stuart Heisler. Art director: Ben Carré. Wardrobe; Sophie Wachner. Assistant director: Roger Heman. Goldwyn Films.

Copyright 24 Feb 1926 by Samuel Goldwyn. United Artists release. New York opening at the Apollo: 16 November 1925. 11 reels.

SYNOPSIS: Mill worker’s daughter snares a discredited socialite, but refuses to join him in New York when his fortunes improve. Despite her crude manners, she’s a good-hearted woman, who passionately loves her daughter and is willing to secure her happiness at any cost.

COMMENT: “One day,” Henry King told us, “Sam Goldwyn came to me, weeping. ‘I’ve just viewed the birthday party rushes,’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen anything so emotional in my whole life. It just tears your heart out!’ Sam was right. But it was vital that the climax itself be even more devastating!”
It is. Thanks to Belle Bennett’s terrific performance – which is surely the greatest piece of acting in the whole decade. But, would you believe, Lois Moran, in her Hollywood debut, comes close to topping it? It’s hard to credit the same actress is playing Laurel at ten and Laurel as a bride. Although the rest of the players are over-shadowed, Jean Hersholt and Alice Joyce still make a considerable impression. Young Fairbanks comes across well too in his small but vital role, while Ronald Colman is perfectly cast as the heavy. Only a player of Colman’s skill could make a basically unsympathetic character reasonably likable.
As might be expected from an open-handed producer like Samuel Goldwyn, the movie has been superbly crafted in all respects. And fortunately its artistic quality is well served on the beautifully tinted 10/10 DVD currently available from Sunrise Silents.