OH, THE SCANDAL!
By Raymond Benson
Director
Douglas Sirk was known primarily for his “adult†melodramas of the 1950s that
usually dealt with bucking the small-town America social mores of the times. All That Heaven Allows is a prime
example. In lush, bold Technicolor (the superb cinematography is by Russell Metty),
Sirk tells the story of a May-September romance between an “older†widow and a
younger man (in actuality, star Jane Wyman was only 38 when the film was made,
and her paramour in the picture, Rock Hudson, was 30; obviously the intention
was that Wyman’s character is even older, say, in her 40s, since she has
college-age children). The couple must face gossip, scorn, and ultimate
rejection from Wyman’s society friends and even her grown children. The message
of acceptance and tolerance hits one over the head like a hammer, to be sure,
but, granted, at the time the subject matter was most likely indeed scandalous
to most Americans. Now it’s a big “so what.†That said, the point of the
story—that women need to be responsible for their own happiness and not cater
to what other people think—is still relevant today. A mother’s children will
eventually grow up and leave the nest; why should she remain in an unhappy
situation just to please them when they’re not even there?
Ah,
but yes, Rock Hudson. Looking back at his performance in this and his other
hits of the 50s and 60s and knowing what we know about him today, one cannot
help but view the actor in a different light. And, for me, anyway, I saw right
through Hudson’s performance. I couldn’t believe that a) Wyman fell for the
guy, and b) that Hudson was really attracted to her. In 1955, the audience for
whom the picture was aimed (female, I imagine) may have bought the romance;
today, it’s superficial and frankly unbelievable. If there had been a bit more
spark between the actors and some clues that there were aspects about each
other that they found appealing (other than Hudson’s Adonis good looks), it
might play better. As it is, All That
Heaven Allows is now a curious relic of a time when America had more bugs
up its ass than a mother spider.
The
Criterion Collection presents the picture in the classiest way possible—a 2K
digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray—and it
looks marvelous. Of particular interest is the extra, Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, in which we are treated to clips from
his films that he edited himself; they compile the moments in which the subtext
implies the truth about his sexual orientation. A Profile of Douglas Sirk, a 1979 BBC documentary, features rare interview
footage and is an interesting portrait of the filmmaker. There is more, of
course, in the dual Blu-ray/DVD format package, including an essay on Sirk in
the accompanying booklet, written by none other than filmmaker Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, whose work was inspired by the director’s pictures.
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