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Absolutely love Barbara Stanwyck and consider her one of the best actresses of her generation. She is/was one of the few to seldom give a bad performance despite being in some very patchy films early on in her career. Have much admiration for Douglas Sirk, another director that explored very real and difficult subjects and conflicts and not in a toned down fashion. Some films of his are better than others, one of my favourites of his being 'Imitation of Life', but there is a good deal to admire about all his films.

1953's 'All I Desire' is no exception. It is not a great film in my view, and both Stanwyck and Sirk did better films in their careers (though individually both fare very well). Like much of Sirk's output, there is a lot to admire about 'All I Desire' that outweigh the not so good things which sadly are present. Fans of Stanwyck are not likely to be disappointed, despite it not being one of her best there is plenty here that made her such a good actress.

Will start with the good things. Regardless of what one thinks of whether the period is well established, 'All I Desire' still looks great in its own way. It is beautifully photographed, at its best quite lavish without being overblown, and it's well designed. The music is often hauntingly beautiful without being over-intrusive or too syrupy. The film is sensitively directed by Sirk, in an understated but never disengaged way, his trademark touches obvious especially in his themes and the realistic way his characters are treated.

Enough of the dialogue is thought-provoking and poignant and the story also has emotional impact and doesn't shy away from its approach to the subject without being too ham-handed. Most of the performances are fine, Stanwyck was a wonderful actress and her steel and vulnerability is abundantly clear. Once he warmed up, after starting off uncomfortable, Richard Carlson actually to me did a mostly good job. Lori Nelson, once one warms to the character, and Maureen O'Sullivan are lovely support, though O'Sullivan could have had more to do. One can argue that it is hard to care for the characters and fair enough, but this is a situation where likeability would not have been as realistic.

Lyle Bettger is however a complete blank and lacks any kind of charisma or intensity in my opinion. The dialogue can get overwrought and soapy.

Did find the final quarter too heavy on the melodrama and really do have to agree with everybody that has panned the very jarring and tacked on ending that absolutely reeks of studio interference.

Summing up, good enough but not great. 7/10

Barbara Stanwyck gives this early Douglas Sirk-directed, Universal-produced soap just the kick that it needs. Not nearly as memorable as Sirk's later melodramas, it's easy to see by watching "All I Desire" where Sirk would be heading artistically in the next few years. Stanwyck is a showgirl who returns to her family in smalltown, U.S.A, after deserting them a decade earlier. Her family and community have mixed emotions in dealing with her shocking return. Some of the cinematography is amazing, and Stanwyck is tough-as-nails and really gives this film a shot of energy. Overall, a fairly good show.

"All I Desire" from 1953 is a drama from Douglas Sirk, filmed in black and white and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Carlson, Maureen O'Sullivan, Lori Nelson, Lyle Bettger, Billy Gray, and Marcia Henderson.

Stanwyck plays an actress, Naomi Murdoch, who at this point in her life, isn't very successful. Some years earlier she was living in a small town and left her husband and chldren. The family maid keeps her posted on how everyone is doing.

One of her daughters, Lily (Nelson) is an aspiring actress who is going to be appearing in her high school play. She invites her mother, who is encouraged by the woman sharing her dressing room to attend.

With some new outfits, she comes back into town with much hoopla. Her older daughter (Henderson) isn't happy to see her; her son (Gray) really doesn't remember her; and her husband wonders what she's doing in town.

It doesn't take long to find out why Naomi left town - she was seeing a man Dutch Heinemann (Bettger) and got out before there was too much of a scandal. Now that she's back, her husband (Carlson) realizes that he still loves her, and she him. He wants her to stay. Lily wants her mother to take her to New York. And Dutch wants to pick up where they left off.

Good film about small town nosiness and gossip with a wonderful performance by Stanwyck, who really drives the film. This is from Universal Studios, so frankly, she's really the only true star in the movie and lacks the usual Sirk touch of color.

The musical score is overwrought and very distracting.

This film is about fighting for what you want, following your heart, and realizing the true meaning of success. "All I Desire" brings home these themes very well.

Douglas Sirk was just hitting his stride in depicting family melodramas with this 1953 feature, produced like all his later major Universal International Pictures Movies in the 50's by Ross Hunter. Although the period setting of turn of the century America might throw the viewing a little off kilter, the familiar Sirk themes of small-town morality, complicated relationships and inter-family tensions are present and correct here.

Barbara Stanwyck is the formerly disgraced wife and mother of meek-mannered Richard Carlson's school teacher and his three children, all with a different viewpoint of Stanwyck's actions years ago when she left them for a life on the stage after a scandal involving another man about town. When the middle daughter, an aspiring actress, sends her adored and revered mother a request to attend her performance in the annual school play, Stanwyck's character, in truth, a hack journey-woman struggling for work, decides to return to her old hometown, knowing her previous infamy will make her the centre of attraction.

All sorts of dynamics are then played out between Stanwyck, her husband and their children, complicated further when the spurned "other man" returns for another bite at the cherry and even if the ending is perhaps unnecessarily upbeat, it doesn't denigrate too much what has gone before.

La grand dame Barbara is in top form as the conflicted central character around whom the whole action revolves, while most noteworthy in support are her "The Big Valley" future co-star Richard Long as her unforgiving oldest daughter's fiancé, at least until he wears his goofy "big R" college shirt near the end and Lori Nelson as the star-struck younger daughter.

Sirk's fluid camera work, particularly his ability to frame and light a scene as well as coax sympathetic and believable work from his cast are well in evidence here. "All I Desire" may lack the emotional wallop of some of his later films and could have dug a little deeper into some of the motivations and desires on display here but is nevertheless a fine stand-alone watch as well as a telling harbinger of better things to come from the producer-director team setting out here.

A failed actress returns to the family, the lover and the small town she abandoned years earlier and sets tongues wagging anew. Does it rank up there with ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS or IMITATION OF LIFE? No, not really. It all wraps up too neatly (the "happy" ending was forced by the producer), Lyle Bettger has the charisma of a toilet brush (why would Barbara Stanwyck ever fall for this lummox?) and it's pointlessly set in the early part of the century. The only rationale I can think of for the latter is that Stanwyck's lack of success would be harder to keep a secret in modern times, but it takes the edge off and makes the whole thing a bit too quaint. However, it's not really a dud, either. It's a tight script, Stanwyck is riveting as always, and Sirk's eye for brilliant framing is hard at work. It makes for a quick, easy watch with some slight subversiveness in its commentary on small town gossip and hypocrisy.