I know this may be a strange question, but I always have wondered this:
What is the silent film that Stella and her date are watching in the theatre? Does anyone recognize it? It's not critical to know, but I am curious!
while i don't know what that particular film is -- i would argue that it IS, in fact, a critical element to the film. in a way, stella's experience in the movie theatre -- where she idealizes the screen-kiss -- is directly quoted at the end of the film -- where she is forced to watch her daughter's marriage through a window-pane -- eerily similar to a movie screen. in both instances, her "happiness" is purely passive and idealistic -- and the end films with a smiling stella; content with a life of mediated imagery, void of actual participation (in the glories of the nobility).
shareJason, you are correct and the observation you make is a very accurate & telling one. I meant to convey that it wasn't critical to me to know the answer to my question, not to imply that the scene wasn't critical to the movie.
I'm just really curious to know what the silent film was !!! I hope someone might know the answer to that at some point....
I have no idea, but it would be funny/apt if it was the 1925 silent version of Stella Dallas: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016395/
shareBoy that would be great if it was the original!!
share
Nicely observed, jason!
I also don't know which film it is and I wondered the same. For whatever it's worth, I have seen hundreds of silent films and I didn't recognize it. Because of this, and because of something in the look of the clip, I assumed that it was not from any real film but was staged and shot in 1936-7 for this movie.
Jason, if you are still alive, damn good observation there.
"I am like Cryptonite for men. Cryptonite dipped in cellulite."
Watched "Stella Dallas" yesterday; the woman in the silent film clip looked to me like Theda Bara. If so, this posses an intriguing situation as only 4 or 5 of her films are known to exist. This clip may be the only existing footage of a lost movie!
"I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes"!
I thought it looked like Theda Bara, too, and from the dating of the costumes and her small surviving output, it must be The Unchastened Woman (1925). I have the film; I'll check.
shareI just skimmed The Unchastened Woman, and it does not appear to be the movie. (It would have been wrong, anyway, because the scene was supposed to take place in 1919.) I'll keep checking...could that be Pola Negri? The answer is out there somewhere!
shareI believe the "movie within the movie" is "Camille"(19210, starring Alla Nazimova. She was another silent movie "vamp", like Bara and Negri. Her co-star was Rudolph Valentino.
shareAccording to the recently published biography of Barbara Stanwyck by Victoria Wilson, the movie is none other than the original silent version of Stella Dallas.
shareI just came here to post the same thing--It was the 1925 Stella Dallas, with Belle Bennett in the title role. I recently watched it and felt it was even better than the Stanwyck version. For one thing, the character of Stella is a lot more consistent and easier to understand in the earlier movie.
share