Wed 12 Sep 2018
A Silent Movie Review by Walter Albert: STELLA DALLAS (1925).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews , Silent films1 Comment
STELLA DALLAS. United Artists, 1925. Ronald Colman, Belle Bennett, Alice Joyce, Jean Hersholt, Beatrix Pryor, Lois Moran, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Vera Lewis. Based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. Director: Henry King. Shown at Cinevent 22, Columbus OH, May 1990.
One of the great all-time tear-jerkers, and I don’t imagine there was a dry eye in the room at the end. Colman was a major star before the talkies, and I’ve never seen him give a bad performance, but this Belle Bennett’s film, and she carries you with her all the way.
Is her performance better than Barbara Stanwyck’s in the sound remake? Maybe not, but I think it’s just as good, and I am a great admirer of Stanwyck in almost everything she did in the thirties and forties.
September 12th, 2018 at 4:49 pm
Still, it is odd here that the leading man gets top billing in what even then was clearly a woman’s movie. It even sounds a bit odd to say STELLA DALLAS starring Ronald Colman.
Hnery King is something of an underrated director who did many fine films in his career, but never seems to receive the auteur title bestowed on many less successful filmmakers who might have shown a bit more flash.