Stella
Cast & Crew
Claude Binyon
Ann Sheridan
Victor Mature
David Wayne
Randy Stuart
Leif Erickson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In a wooded picnic area near Groevner's Cove, Connecticut, members of the Bevins family, including mother Flora, daughters Claire and Mary and their respective husbands Carl and Don, are burying their Uncle Joe in an improvised grave. Meanwhile, Stella Bevins, who provides most of the family's financial support, is at work in the local office of the Commonwealth Insurance Co. Stella is engaged to her boss, Fred Anderson, but tolerates him only because she needs the job. Her brothers-in-law work during the summer months at a local hotel, then lie around the rest of the year drawing unemployment benefits. Jeff De Marco, a Commonwealth claims adjuster and former detective, is working on a case nearby and has been asked to evaluate Fred for a job at the head office in New York. To find out about Fred, Jeff invites Stella to dinner, but she is not impressed by him. When she gets home, Stella is told that Uncle Joe is missing, but as he has disappeared before on drinking binges, she is nonplussed. Later, the household is awakened by police chief Clark and the widow Calhoun, who has reported Joe missing. She and Joe had planned to elope that night and then throw the Bevins family out of the house. After the chief and the widow leave, Stella finds some of Joe's best clothes on a stairwell landing and becomes suspicious. Her mother confesses that Uncle Joe was acting mean at a family picnic and challenged Carl to a fight, but fell, hit his head on a rock and died. Although Stella wants to phone the police chief, she is persuaded that, given the past animosity between Joe and Carl, no one will believe it was an accident, and so she agrees to keep their secret. Jeff is interested in Stella but is about to return to New York when Fred finds out that Joe was insured by their company for $20,000. Chief Clark then calls with the news that Joe's body has apparently been found after being run over by a freight train. Carl and Don identify the remains of the stranger as Uncle Joe, and at dinner that night the family is arguing about the insurance money when Jeff and the widow Calhoun come to say that dental records have proven that the man they identified could not have been Joe. Jeff suggests that they withdraw their insurance claim. Some time later, Fred and Stella receive an invitation from Jeff to attend the company convention in New York so that Fred can meet the right people and get the job. Among the people Fred meets is Charlie Wright, the company's chief adjuster, who hopes to find a spot for Fred in New York but would like him in the meantime to investigate claims in his own area, such as the Bevins case. Fred becomes jealous as a result of the attention Jeff is paying to Stella and reminds him that he and Stella are engaged. Back in Connecticut, another potential Uncle Joe has materialized, this time on the beach. Again Carl and Don identify the corpse as Uncle Joe and arrange an elaborate, $500 funeral. A worried Stella then confesses to Fred what has been going on. He tells her that now no one will believe Joe's death was an accident and suggests that she claim the insurance money and be freed of the burden of supporting her family. Soon Jeff comes back to town to investigate the latest Bevins case. At the funeral, Jeff announces that X-rays reveal that the body they are about to bury could not possibly be Uncle Joe's. Later, Carl suggests they dig up Uncle Joe and leave him where he can be found. When Stella, who has fallen in love with Jeff, tells Fred that she plans to marry Jeff, he reminds her of what she confided in him and holds it over her. Jeff guesses that Fred knows something that can hurt Stella, and when he overhears Stella tell Fred that Carl and Don are digging up Uncle Joe, heads out to the site with Chief Clark. Fred and Stella also drive out to the picnic area. Because it is night, Carl and Don have difficulty locating the grave. After Stella and Fred arrive, Jeff and the chief overhear Carl saying to Stella and Fred that Joe's death was an accident. After they are surprised by Jeff and the chief, Carl and Don are ordered to keep digging until they find Uncle Joe. Later, at the police station, the chief gets a call from the coroner saying that the body Carl and Don eventually recovered was that of a female Indian, as they buried Joe in what was formerly an Indian burial ground. Although they are cleared of suspicion in Joe's death, Jeff suggests that Carl and Don keep digging until they find Joe, and while they dig hole after hole after hole, Jeff and Stella leave to get married.
Director
Claude Binyon
Cast
Ann Sheridan
Victor Mature
David Wayne
Randy Stuart
Leif Erickson
Marion Marshall
Frank Fontaine
Evelyn Varden
Lea Penman
Joyce Mackenzie
Hobart Cavanaugh
Chill Wills
Charles Halton
Walter Baldwin
Larry Keating
Mary Bear
Paul Harvey
Loreli Vitek
Bob Milton
Crew
Claude Binyon
Linda Cross
A. F. Erickson
Paul S. Fox
Atillio Gabbani
Roger Heman
Clara Holgate
Harmon Jones
Mark-lee Kirk
Charles Le Maire
Thomas Little
Joe Macdonald
Jerry Milligan
Cyril Mockridge
Lionel Newman
Ben Nye
Edward Powell
Ad Schaumer
Fred Sersen
Sol C. Siegel
Rose Steinberg
Edward Stevenson
E. Clayton Ward
Lyle Wheeler
Darryl F. Zanuck
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film's working titles were Family Skeleton and Stella and the City of Men. According to documents in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library, the studio purchased the novel on September 30, 1949 for $10,000. F. Hugh Herbert wrote a treatment in October 1949, but it has not been determined what, if anything, of his work remains in the released film. All subsequent drafts were written exclusively by Claude Binyon. Prior to commencement of shooting, the project underwent several casting changes: Susan Hayward was replaced by Ann Sheridan; Randy Stuart, who was to play "Mary," replaced Barbara Lawrence as "Claire"; and, in turn, Marion Marshall replaced Randy Stuart as "Mary." Chill Wills, who played "Chief Clark," insisted that his name not appear onscreen or in any advertising. Despite being credited onscreen for the music score, Cyril Mockridge composed none of the music; according to the legal records, Alfred Newman wrote most of it. Stella marked the last screen appearance of long-time character actor Hobart Cavanaugh, who died in late April 1950.
