“STELLA DALLAS” IS PRIVATELY SCREENED IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17880, 23 June 1926, Page 4

“STELLA DALLAS” IS PRIVATELY SCREENED IN CHRISTCHURCH.

IT IS AN ABSORBING STORY OF THE GREAT LOVE OF A MOTHER. Delightfully played and admirably mounted, “Stella Dallas." the big Gddwyn production, a private screening of which was given in Christchurch today, is a magnificent picture. Billy Bennett, in the leading role, throws over the whole movement of the story, the lure of a wonderful personality that dominates everything throughout the picture. It is a great photoplay with a wca I th of arresting incident that keeps the attention riveted on the screen from first to last, and compels an attitude of constant expectancy. It is brimful of surprises, a simply human story ll at reflects a great human understanding. Alice Joyce as the lovable Mrs Morrison, scores an emphatic triumph. She grips the affections of the spectators when she first appears before the camera. Every expression, every movement, she makes them eloquent and telling. “Stella Dallas” is a photoplay with an appeal for every type of movie goer. Stella Dallas was a good woman, but a fool. She had been thrown into a world that was not her own, a world to •which she did not belong, and she made herself ridiculous. But withal she had a heart, and a strong maternal fection for her little daughter Laurel. She gave all for her in the end, sacrificed everything that she could call her own, even her sclf-rcspect so that

her girl might be happy. If Stella Dallas had been content to live in her little home with her husband and child, and had not rushed off to garden parties and other social functions at eveiv opportunity the three might have lived long and happily together. But Stella had her own views on life. Shfe had a lot of false pride, too. It proved her undoing. Jt made of her an outcast, a woman to be pitied. But Stella had made her daughter happy, and that was her sole ambition in life. That is the story. It is simple in its way, but the producer has left no stone unturned to make of the production a photo-play really worth while, and “Stella Dallas” is a triumph for all concerned in its production. To an infinite capacity for the proper welding of constructive detail, the producer has added the results of much patient work, and with the aid of one of the most noteworthy casts that has ever been assembled in the making of a single motion picture he has succeeded in putting out a first-class production. Jt is an engrossing story. But it is the actors and actresses who have been entrusted with the interpretation of the various roles who stand out particularly. They are all clever people, all stars of the movie firmament who long ago made their reputations in the movie world. Miss Rich’s work stands out as a delightful little cameo of clever acting. Her work is good enough to be notable even amongst so many notable things. But “Stella Dallas’ has a wealth of merits. It is a motion picture gem,