1937's "Stella Dallas" with Barbara Stanwyck hasn't exactly aged well--how anyone thought a semi-updated version of the story would work now is a real puzzler. Perhaps they thought jaunty, cheerfully brash Bette Midler could make something out of it, but this hoary script defeats her. Plot about a female bartender having a baby out of wedlock, and years later giving the young girl over to the child's wealthy father so she'll have a shot at a better life, can't escape tatty, old-fashioned trappings and sentiment. Midler works best with a movie director who can control her excesses, but that fails to happen here with John Erman, who's too lax. Stephen Collins is stolid as the man who changes Stella's life, but Trini Alvarado is well-cast as the daughter. This is what used to be referred to as a "woman's picture", a wallow, but it doesn't pass muster today while remaining too faithful to its 1930s origins. *1/2 from ****