Stella (1990 film)

Stella is a 1990 American drama film produced by The Samuel Goldwyn Company and released by Touchstone Pictures. The screenplay by Robert Getchell is the third feature film adaptation of the 1923 novel Stella Dallas by Olive Higgins Prouty. Previous film versions were Stella Dallas and the silent film Stella Dallas.

Stella Bette Midler is a feisty woman working in a bar when she meets and falls for the suave charms of the young Dr. Steve Dallas Stephen Collins. Although from opposite ends of the social spectrum, they start an affair resulting in Stella becoming pregnant. After he proposes halfheartedly, she rejects him and embarks upon raising their child Jenny as a single mother but is always helped and encouraged by her stalwart friend, a local good natured barfly, Ed Munn John Goodman. Stella is fiercely independent and proud and is determined to do well by this child and take on whatever jobs she must to raise her daughter properly. When Jenny isyears old, her father suddenly reappears on the scene and is determined to get to know his daughter. At first reluctant to allow this, Stella is persuaded to allow contact, and a happy bond develops between the father and daughter. As Jenny Trini Alvarado grows up, she becomes torn between her fathers rich and wellconnected background, and her loyalty and love for her mother who is poor and vulgar but devoted to her daughter. She also despises the perceived relationship she sees developing between Stella and Ed Munn who is now a broken alcoholic. Jenny eventually meets and falls for a boy from her fathers world and Stella realizes that now, the disparities in her own and Jennys fathers backgrounds might jeopardize her daughters future happiness. So she makes a heart rending decision towards the end of the film to ensure that this is not going to happen.The movie received mediocre reviews. In her New York Times review, Janet Maslin said, Bette Midler, too old for the films opening and too smart for its resolution, isnt exactly the right actress, but shes a lot closer than might have been expected. Ms. Midler manages to gloss over the storys inconsistencies, play up its charming aspects, and generally bluster her way through . . . her exuberance is most helpful in overshadowing the inconvenient aspects of this story.

Source: Wikipedia