Stella Dallas (1937)

A mill worker's daughter (Barbara Stanwyck) has ambitions to marry well and escape her working class background. Eventually, she marries a man (John Boles) with breeding and social standing but she seems more interested in having a good time with less than stellar characters. Based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty and directed by King Vidor (DUEL IN THE SUN). Along with MADAME X, this is the quintessential mother love and sacrifice movie and like MADAME X, it's been made several times, first as a 1925 silent and later in 1990 with Bette Midler in the title role. The film pulls at the tear ducts and even the most cynical moviegoer should be misty eyed by the end of the film. The movie is pure melodramatic soap opera but is redeemed by Stanwyck's Oscar nominated performance. The story may creak (it creaked in 1925 too) but Stanwyck brings genuine pathos as the "common" mother whose love for her daughter (Anne Shirley also Oscar nominated) knows no bounds and makes the ultimate sacrifice for her daughter's happiness. With Tim Holt, Marjorie Main, Alan Hale, Barbara O'Neil, Ann Shoemaker and Laraine Day.