All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 26
Fresh: 24 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 2
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 4,915
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Movie Info
One of director Douglas Sirk's best and most successful romantic soapers of the 1950s, All That Heaven Allows is predicated on a May-December romance. The difference here is that the woman, attractive widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman), is considerably older than the man, handsome gardener-landscaper Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). Sirk builds up sympathy for Cary by showing how empty her life has been since her husband's death, even suggesting that the marriage itself was no picnic. Throwing conventionial
Jun 19, 2001
Cast
-
Jane Wyman
Cary Scott -
Rock Hudson
Ron Kirby -
Agnes Moorehead
Sara Warren -
Conrad Nagel
Harvey -
Virginia Grey
Alida Anderson -
Gloria Talbott
Kay Scott -
William Reynolds
Ned Scott -
Jacqueline de Wit
Mona Plash -
Charles Drake
Mick Anderson -
Leigh Snowden
Jo-Ann -
Merry Anders
Mary Ann -
Donald Curtis
Howard Hoffer -
Alex Gerry
George Warren -
Tol Avery
Tom Allenby -
Lillian Culver
Bit part -
Jim Hayward
John -
David Janssen
Freddie Norton -
Paul Keast
Mark Plash -
Forrest Lewis
Mr. Weeks -
Joseph Mell
Mr. Gow -
Nestor Paiva
Manuel -
Vernon Rich
Bill -
Hayden Rorke
Dr. Hennessy -
Gia Scala
Manuel's Daughter
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All Critics (26) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (27) | Rotten (2) | DVD (16)
Hudson is handsome and somewhat wooden. Laconic of speech, and imbued with an angel's patience and understanding, it's at times hard to understand his passion for the widow, what with pretty girls just spoilingfor his attention.
Top CriticSolid and sensible drama plainly had to give way to outright emotional bulldozing and a paving of easy clichés.
Beneath the stunningly lovely visuals -- all expressionist colours, reflections, and frames-within-frames, used to produce a precise symbolism -- lies a kernel of terrifying despair
A masterpiece (1955) by one of the most inventive and recondite directors ever to work in Hollywood, Douglas Sirk.
Sirk benefited immeasurably from the fact that the chief subject of his crazy cinema was postwar America.
A classic and beautiful film for those who love romantic stories
Romance novel in narrative this transcends its genre with visual depth and perceptive socio-cultural insights.
One of Sirk's finest films.
'Time, if anything, will vindicate Douglas Sirk,' wrote Andrew Sarris in 1968. He was right.
When Carey (Jane Wyman) first visits the Andersons, friends of Ron (Rock Hudson), Thoreau's Walden is placed on the table. She then reads a passage in which he describes the "mass of men living lives of quiet desperation," a summation of her life.
Yet another mystifyingly lionized Sirkian soaper.
Quite involving, overblown emotion and all, particularly due to Wyman's gentle sincerity.
The rich visual texture, using glorious Technicolor, and a soaring emotional score lend what is essentially a thin story a kind of epic tension.
The enjoyability of All That Heaven Allows is hampered by the fact that there's no real plot here.
A potent story for the ages.
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Foreign Titles
- Was der Himmel erlaubt (DE)
- All That Heaven Allows (1955) (UK)
