All That Heaven Allows is a 1955 American drama romance film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by Ross Hunter, and adapted by Peg Fenwick from a story by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee. It stars Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson in a tale about the social complications that arise following the development of a romance between a well-to-do widow and a younger man, who owns a tree nursery.
Why It Rocks
In the 1950s, Douglas Sirk created a bunch of melodramatic films with female main characters, which were quite different from women's pictures in the 1930s and 40s. In those films, families were viewed as the reward or the solution, to some of the women's issues (i.e.: prejudice, intolerance, or even disease), while films suggesting they were the problem were limited to comedies, thrillers, or "serious" films. All That Heaven Allows -- one of his 50s films -- has a more subversive message: not only could families cause misery, but the entire search for happiness in American society might be misguided.
The movie serves as valuable commentary on 1950’s society. Scenes comment on a range of period issues, including social conformity, class difference, gender roles, and the pursuit of material wealth. The hollow and fake movie set feel of Sirk’s suburbia cleverly highlights the facile nature of real suburban living. Rather than an optimistic picture of 1950’s society, the movie cleverly underlines the limits of what ‘Heaven’ (or the ‘good life’) actually allows.
Despite the novel the film's based on not having much of a story, Sirk put a lot of his own touch into the film to give some the content more meaning. Sirk focused on the look and sound of the film rather than on its plot, or its acting, while at the same time keeping the original intent of the story.
There's the way the lead characters express their emotions via little gestures (at home amidst trees, Ron waves his hands in a natural and relaxed style, in stark contrast to Cary’s nervous energy and anxiety)
The sets were washed with primary colors, vivid blues and reds that were meant to echo the characters’ psychological states. Sirk had this done based on his background in German expressionism.
Frank Skinner provided a soothing orchestral soundtrack with vaguely classical overtones.
Interesting storyline dealing with a love affair between a recent widow/mother of two young adults, and her gardener, who's actually a tree surgeon who wants to open his own nursery.
Jane Wyman does a surprisingly good performance as the passive Cary Scott. Her blank features almost never betray emotion, and yet her eyes can't hide her inner fears, even when she's smiling.
The main characters both serve as a symbols of people dealing with suburbia differently.
Cary Scott as a character is presented as a stick figure in a lopsided argument against materialism, tapping into an increasingly popular vision of suburbia as hell, albeit a pricey one filled with consumer goods. While, the idea of questioning economic values is a worth a thought, the film doesn't present it very cogently. For Mrs. Scott, her children and friends are strangers to her, she has no outside interests. She wears what she finds in her closet, does what she is told to do, is trapped by the expectations of those around her and agonizes over the happy ending that is staring her in the face.
Ron Kirby, on the other hand, is used to explore the merits of nonconformity and resistance. Ron is an outsider, pure of mind, stubborn and rooted like a tree. Ron is antimaterialist and nature-loving. Much of the aesthetic beauty of All That Heaven Allows comes from seeing the world through Ron’s eyes: his simplicity of spirit, his restoration of a rustic old mill (his own personal Walden), and his love of silvertipped spruce. Ron’s wilderness romance is contagious and inspiring, and his rustic mill ultimately represents Sirk’s real ‘heaven’ in the picture.
Nature itself is weaved into the love story between the two leads. The film begins with doves together on a clock tower and a gift of a tree cutting for Cary from Ron, and ends with a snowy deer outside a rustic window while the couple embrace. Nature continuously shapes and contours the emotional narrative of the film.
Despite some uneven bits, the director manages to maintain a balance between compassion and criticism, between a happy ending and a blanket condemnation, keeping the film's underlying tensions and contradictions in check.
For modern day viewers, an especially noticeable contradiction is Rock Hudson's performance as a love interest, considering he was a closeted homosexual who kept his true emotions in check. Said disconnect between his true life and his character gives the film a poignancy.
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