The first film version of the Olive Higgins Prouty best seller.<br /><br />Despite third billing, Belle Bennett stars as Stella and is very good in the role of her career. She does an amazing job of aging over a 20-year period and is very effective.<br /><br />Ronald Colman stars (and gets tops billing) as Stephen Dallas, and Alice Joyce is Mrs. Morrison.<br /><br />Lois Moran gets the role of Laurel and is excellent, starting out as a 10-year-old. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. plays the boy friend. They were both 16. Jean Hersholt is Ed Munn, Vera Lewis is a gossipy teacher, and Beatrix Pryor plays Fairbanks' mother.<br /><br />Bennett never got another good role and died of cancer in 1932.