A good tearjerker of a movie is one where the handkerchiefs applied are being used in rapid fashion. The eyes swell up, the nose becomes runny and the mouth flutters uncontrollably. Women aren't embarrassed to let the tears flow, but men try to hide their emotional state. In a darkened theater it's easy to do until the lights are turned on.
One of the all-time classic tearjerkers in cinema is the original and the remakes of Olive Higgins Prouty's 1923 novel 'Stella Dallas." The first version to make the big screen was November 1925's "Stellas Dallas." The film doesn't just pack an emotional wallop at the end of the movie, it contains a constant series of cry-your-eyes-out moments. The story of a mismatched couple with a small child has all the ingredients of becoming a Hallmark Movie weeper. When the husband, Stephen Dallas (Ronald Colman) is transferred to New York City, his wife, Stella (Belle Bennett) refuses to go. The husband succumbs to her wishes and leaves without the two of them. One important detail to the plot is Stella is far less refined than Stephen, and the cultural differences play a huge role in the future events, centered mainly around the child, Laurel (Lois Moran).
Film producer Samuel Goldwyn sold his personal share of his studio to a group of investors led by Joe Godsol in 1922, two years before the MGM merger. He then formed his independent Samuel Goldwyn Productions, renting out the Pickford-Fairbanks (United Artists) Studios to make his own movies. Goldwyn was known to have an exceptional eye for the type of stories that could potentially be blockbusters in the theaters. Once "Stella Dallas" premiered, the reviews poured in with a slew of very positive write-ups. Following the buzz on the street, "Stella Dallas" became the sixth highest box-office movie in 1925, a very strong year for movie releases.
Goldwyn signed reliable director Henry King to handle a cast where acting was so crucial to the emotional plot. The glue that held the entire production together was actress Belle Bennett. As a veteran in film since 1913, she lied about her age by ten years to secure youthful roles, which were the most numerous in the industry. During filming of "Stellas Dallas," her 16-year-old son William Howard Macy died. She had always said William was her brother to hide her true age. When it came out she was 34 rather than 24, Bennett was relegated to mother roles after "Stella Dallas." With the loss of her son, however, Bennett became especially close to the movie's 16-year-old co-stars, Lois Moran and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr..
Bennett's film career lasted six more years before, tiring of playing the mom, returned to vaudeville. During one performance in Philadelphia she collapse on stage, a sign she was not well. She recovered, acted for a short time again, before dying in late 1932 of cancer at the age of 41.
"Stella Dallas" also proved to be the high point in young actress Lois Moran's career. In just her second movie, critics predicted this could be the beginning of a long, successful stardom. She had a short affair with F. Scott Fitzgerald, affecting the writer so much he rewrote the central character in 'Tender Is The Night' from male to female to closely resembled Moran. But her screen appearances ended in early 1930s when she married the United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Clarence Young.
Despite sharing a name with arguably the most famous star in silent movies, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Career in acting was no guarantee. Born in 1909 to Douglas and his first wife, Anna Beth Sully, he pursued an education until Paramount Pictures signed him at 13 to play a proposed Tom Sawyer movie, over his father's objections. The project never panned out, and he returned to school. A year later, he was seen in small roles earlier in 1925 before appearing in "Stella Dallas" towards the end in the wedding scene, his first visible role.
Prouty's sentimental book wasn't retired in the dustbin after the success of the 1925 movie. The story was brought back to the screen two more times: the 1937 classic with Barbara Stanwyck, and the 1990 with Bette Midler as Stella.
