150 Word Review: 'All That Heaven Allows' (1955)
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Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson glow with longing in this Technicolor melodrama about a widow who falls in love with the gardener.
All That Heaven Allows is one of the great “no, we mustn’t” Hollywood romances. She’s well-off and bored with grieving and her snotty country club friends. He’s a bohemian hunk who loves Thoreau and dreams of growing trees. Whatever you do, don’t let uppity town snitch Mona see you canoodling with a working-class he-man!
Director Douglas Sirk’s emotionally and visually sumptuous movie is as intense and passionate as ever, thanks to the sparks between Wyman and Hudson. They’re both good actors. The supporting cast mostly play snobs, even Agnes Moorehead, the closest thing Wyman’s character has to a friend. Gloria Talbott stands out as the bespectacled smartypants daughter who judges mommy harshly. All those hoity-toity squares, man. They don’t understand love. At least the town doctor gets it.