All I Desire

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

Douglas Sirk was the prince of melodrama in the fifties.However,there are two kinds of melodramas in his work :the extravaganzas ("Imitation of life" which nearly cut Stahl's version,"written on the wind" "magnificent obsession" ) and the intimate dramas which verge on realism: "all that heaven allows" or "tarnished angels" are good examples.When he connects all the links of the chain ,he produces his masterpiece ,the overlooked "a time to love and a time to die" .

"All I desire " belongs to the second kind of melodrama;its story is simple -but that kind of simplicity ,it takes years and years of practise and a touch of genius to make it work.Barbara Stanwyck -excellent- is the black sheep of the family,the mean woman who walked out on her family and what a nice family they are!In the small town where her husband is a principal in a high school ,people will talk.And there's the prodigal woman's erstwhile beau.

(Re)building of a family was one of Sirk's main permanent features: Hudson and Wyman in "ALL that heavens" and "magnificent obsession" ,Sarah Jane and her mother's friends in "imitation of life" .

Saw this film yesterday for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm a student of screen writing and I loved the way the minor characters intervened just when something pivotal/climatic happened in a scene.

I thought the dialogue was very sharp and the premise of story is rather shocking - at one particular point Barbara Stanwyck is openly flirting with her daughter's boyfriend; AND rekindling some passion in her husband whom she hasn't seen in ten years; AND with the gunshot signal 'two shots and then one' she hooks up with her old shag mate Dutch (the reason she left town in the first place!) ALL AT THE SAME TIME! The moral majority must have been totally incensed when they saw this flick back in the 50's.

Love the costumes and cinematography and the straight from the hip dialogue - just to watch Barbara Stanwyck and Co doing the 'Bunny Hug' is good enough reason to rent this film on DVD.

One of the best films from that period I've seen in a long time.

Barbar Stanwyck, Maureen O'Sullivan, Richard Carlson and Lyle Bettger make up the leading cast in this Ross Hunter-produced and Douglas Sirk-directed film. Stanwyck goes back home to her small town and the family she left behind, after receiving a letter from her oldest daughter, who's starring in a school play and graduating from high school, and who asked her to attend. Stanwyck is an stage actress, but hasn't found much success, and when she hits the small town, gossip flies. Her son just happens to be fishing buddies and best friends with Lyle Bettger, a guy who had an affair with Barbara, before she up and left. And, Miss O'Sullivan is on hand as a love interest for Richard, even though Barbara's new presence puts a fly in their plans. Does he still love Barbara? Does Barbara still love Richard? And, Lyle Bettger is all upset with Barbara for leaving him. That pretty much sets up another melodramatic story, courtesy of Hunter and Sirk.

The only critique or negative thing I have about it, is that it takes itself too seriously too early in the picture and gets really melodramatic really fast, instead of easing into the melodrama, and the dramatic events evolving and complicating their lives. The not-so-subtle score also adds to the dramatics. Bettger and Carlson seem to be overacting, especially Carlson, who appears to be uncomfortable in this movie. (In other words, they and the movie seem to be overdoing it a bit.) But, as we get to the second half and more complications ensue, this begins to find its heart and the dialogue is a lot more believable and realistic. Carlson and Bettger appear to have settled into their roles. Stanwyck is always great, as usual. The only other question is why did Richard Carlson get this role, instead of someone like George Brent or a more charismatic leading actor? But on the whole, you will definitely enjoy this film and be glad you've discovered this unknown melodrama. It can be found on a new Barbara Stanwyck DVD collection out in 2010. I could watch it again right now, and this cold weather makes me want to snuggle in for a nice quiet Saturday afternoon with Barbara Stanwyck. Who could ask for anything more?

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.