Written by Peggy Thompson, Edna L. Lee, and Harry Lee
Directed by Douglas Sirk

In this day and age where we can get online and find comfort in like-minded groups of people from around the world, there’s less of the “conform or be cast out” pressure of life in suburbia, although it does still exist.  Back in the 1950s when Douglas Sirk was directing a string of melodramatic films, the impact of this way of thinking was captured quite well in All That Heaven Allows.

Jane Wyman is Cary Scott.  She’s a recent widow who’s trying to get on with her life.  Her two children are grown and off to school while she tests the waters dating an acquaintance who’s more concerned with his health than anything else.

One afternoon she strikes up a conversation with her gardener, Ron Kirby (portrayed by Rock Hudson).  He’s half-heartedly trying to carry on the business his father once ran and making the rounds of the customers.  His real interest is in running a tree farm of his own away from all of the pressure of life in the suburbs.  He invites Cary along to see the farm he’s trying to develop and opens up her eyes to a world far away from the dictates of her upper-middle-class surroundings.

Their romance sparks controversy not just for the fact that Ron is so much younger than Cary, but due to the social differences as well.  Cary’s children reject him outright, with her son threatening to never see her again if she goes forward with her plan to marry Ron.

For a Director who at times was dismissed as making nothing more than overly dramatic films that would appeal to a female audience, Sirk manages to really capture the isolation of living in a world that demanded conformity.  All That Heaven Allows is a fantastic social statement that was way ahead of its time in that regard.  The shallowness of many of Cary’s friends is on display for all to take heed of.  When she was building her life with her husband and children, she was blind to much of what was going on in an effort to achieve a certain status in their community.  Now that everything she built over the last twenty years or so has been stripped away, she can see what’s happening and who these people truly are.  I’m sure the film was eye-opening for many people who saw it.

The acting performances are terrific.  I remember Jane Wyman mostly from her roles as she grew older.  To see her as a younger and beautiful woman is a joy.  She’s just 38 here to Hudson’s 30, but the age difference is played for all it can be. She’s not quite the “cougar” we think of nowadays, but it was enough coupled with the controversy of him being below her social class to set tongues wagging.  Wyman and Hudson do seem to have chemistry together and their attraction is fun.  Watching Cary discover a much bigger world out there with the socially unacceptable Ron is a lot of fun and might be hard to relate to for many in a time and place where there’s less of that kind of pressure to be seen.

The imagery of a claustrophobic suburban town is captured well by Sirk, both in the people and in the setting.  As beautiful as Cary’s world seems to be at times, he manages to add subtle messages of the life that awaits her if she chooses mere companionship with the “right” man over love.  All the talk of televisions as it was the newest thing at the time but also in retrospect just as stifling and secluding as Sirk was projecting will also be lost on a younger audience, but it drives the point home.

If you haven’t viewed All That Heaven Allows, I recommend getting your hands on it.  It’s really a fantastic film that’s both visually stunning and a great social commentary of a time that might be lost on some.