Désir de femme

"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.

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?

Yes, I call this a perfect movie. Not one boring second, a fantastic cast of mostly little known actresses and actors, a great array of characters who are all well defined and who all have understandable motives I could sympathize with, perfect lighting, crisp black and white photography, a fitting soundtrack, an intelligent and harmonious set design and a story that is engaging and works. It's one of those prime quality pictures on which all the pride of Hollywood should rest, the mark everyone should endeavor to reach.

Barbara Stanwyck is simply stunning. There was nothing this actress couldn't do, and she always went easy on the melodramatic side. No hysterical outbursts with this lady - I always thought she was a better actress than screen goddesses like Bette Davis or Joan Crawford, and this movie confirmed my opinion. Always as tough as nails and at the same time conveying true sentiments. It is fair to add that she also got many good parts during her long career, and this one is by far the least interesting.

The title fits this movie very well. It is about desires, human desires I think everyone can understand. Actually, no one seems to be scheming in this movie, all characters act on impulse, everybody wants to be happy without hurting anybody else. The sad fact that this more often than not leads to complications makes for the dramatic content into which I will not go here.

I liked what this movie has to say about youth, about maturing and about the necessity to compromise. The movie I associate most with this one is Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, it creates a similar atmosphere of idealized and at the same time caricatured Small Town America. The story has a certain similarity with Fritz Lang's considerably harsher movie Clash by Night, made one year earlier, where Stanywck stars in a similar part. I can also recommend it.

Although not in the same class as Douglas Sirk's major melodramas, "All I Desire" has many of the traits that would be developed in these later works. As such it is essential viewing for fans of Sirk's films. His use of color is legendary so much is lost by this being filmed in black and white, the result of a tight fisted Universal Studios.

Fans of Barbara Stanwyk should not miss it either. Stanwyk is one of a handful of actresses who simply never gave a weak performance. Under the direction of the likes of Wilder or Sirk, she's a compelling screen presence. Sirk had great admiration for Stanwyk calling her "one of the best in town". He used her a few years later in "There's Always Tomorrow" which remains his greatest unrecognised opus. There his criticism of the American family values is particularly cutting, whereas "All I Desire" has an altogether more forgiving view of small town narrow mindedness.

Sirks films are always worth watching. They are extremely well crafted with each shot carefully thought out. Nothing is left to chance. Those who dismiss the melodrama as an inferior genre would do well to take a close look at his body of work. "All I Desire" makes a good starting point.