Synopsis
This heartbreakingly beautiful indictment of 1950s American mores by
Douglas Sirk follows the blossoming love between a well-off widow (
Jane Wyman) and her handsome and earthy younger gardener (
Rock Hudson). When their romance prompts the scorn of her children and country club friends, she must decide whether to pursue her own happiness or carry on a lonely, hemmed-in existence for the sake of the approval of others. With the help of ace cinematographer
Russell Metty, Sirk imbues nearly every shot with a vivid and distinct emotional tenor. A profoundly felt film about class and conformity in small-town America,
All That Heaven Allows is a pinnacle of expressionistic Hollywood melodrama.