All That Heaven Allows (1955)

All That Heaven Allows
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Written by Peg Fenwick; story by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee
1955/USA
Universal International
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#314 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Kay Scott: Personally, I’ve never subscribed to that old Egyptian custom….of walling up the widow alive in the funeral chambers of her dead husband along with his other possessions. The theory being that she was a possession too. She was supposed to journey into dead with him. The community saw to it. Of course it doesn’t happen anymore.

Cary Scott: Doesn’t it? [/box]

Douglas Sirk’s critique of 50’s middle-class morality features eye-popping visual storytelling.

Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is in early middle age, a widow, and the mother of two young adult children who no longer live at home.  Since her husband’s death, her life has been restricted to country club functions and the tepid courtship of a stolid older man who is always complaining about his aiilments.  She puts on a brave face but you can tell her life is just about killing her.  She confides in her best friend Sara (Agnes Moorehead) who does not seem to understand.

One day, as Sara has stood up Cary for a lunch date, hunky younger gardener Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson) materializes to take her friend’s place.  They immediately hit it off and eventually Ron asks Cary out to his place in the woods to see the trees he is growing. After a few minutes of hesitation, she agrees.  She is soon impressed and a bit frightened by Ron’s Waldenesque unconventional way of life.  Before too long they are in love and Ron asks her to marry him.  She waveringly accepts.

Cary is unprepared for the scandalized reaction of the country club set and, more particularly, her own children.  People object to Ron for both his age and his social standing.  There is a veiled assumption that Ron is after Cary’s money and some murmuring that the relationship must have pre-dated the death of Cary’s husband.  Will Cary have the backbone to go to the altar?

On this viewing of the film, what hit me hardest was Sirk’s barely hidden challenge to the assumption that there is something wrong and even “bad” about a woman of a certain age having sexual needs or desires.  Cary’s old escort is not a threat in this regard.  And by the end of the film even Ron has been rendered “safe”.  The irony is palpable.

The color scheme is vivid and underscores the film’s themes.  Cary is in greys throughout except during the country club scene where she wears a red-dress and becomes the unwilling target of a drunken married lech.  The composition reveals the claustrophobia of Cary’s existence.  The TV set sequence is just brilliant and really does not require words.  The years have provided the film with a feminist subtext that belies its sudsy exterior.  All That Heaven Allows is melodrama for sure but I feel less teary than angry when I watch it.  Recommended.

Trailer