Day 93: All That Heaven Allows (1955)
“All That Heaven Allows,” directed by Douglas Sirk is a gorgeous romantic melodrama centered on the love found between two social classes and the power of 1950′s conformity that holds them apart. Wrapped in the glow of beautiful Technicolor, Sirk’s film explores the growth a person finds in the absence of loss and how, with just the right care, they can be brought back better than ever before.
In “All That Heaven Allows,” Jane Wyman plays Cary Scott, a widow in a New England suburb, who fills the loneliness of her newly single life with her two college aged kids and several friends from her country club. Though she has been seeing a caring, yet somewhat older, man named Harvey for some time, she has no real romantic connection with him and simply finds his kind presence better than being alone.
But, one day, she falls for Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), a younger more down to earth man, who’s content with his life outside the society circles. Soon, the two fall in love and become engaged, hoping to fix up an old abandoned mill on Ron’s country property and live in it. Quickly the news of Cary and Ron spreads into the community and Cary grows deeply concerned when her friends and children look down upon Ron because of both his age and his place in society- stating that they find it appalling for a woman to date, let alone marry, their own gardener. Finding no way to please anyone and fearing her children will abandon her, Cary finally breaks off the engagement and goes back to her life as a widow. But her passion for Ron and his quieter more honest way of living still calls to her and it will be up to Cary if she’ll finally leave her judgmental town behind and follow her heart.
With “All That Heaven Allows,” Sirk uses the beautiful New England landscape as a backdrop for a discussion on the concept of nurturing and how it takes place in people’s lives. Early on in the film it’s obvious that Cary’s town is nurturing her back from the grief found from the loss of her husband and her courter Harvey is the personification of this certain ideal as he never asks or challenges Cary with much of anything, allowing her all the space she needs. At one point, when discussing his idea of romance Harvey explains, “I’m sure you know like I do, affection and companionship are the important things.” Cary doesn’t seem so sure.
Enter Ron, a man different in almost every way from the other people Cary knows and one who has a different outlook to what nurturing something actually means. I don’t believe its a coincidence that this positive nurturer in our protagonist’s life is also a gardener for his profession. It’s symbolic and soon into their courtship, Ron shows Cary that nurturing someone is not a hands off process but hands on, both physically and emotionally. He holds her close, kisses her gently, and whispers words of encouragement when the future begins to look hard. Though Cary is certainly more than a plant, it is a wonderful analogy that is brilliantly pulled off in the film.
“All That Heaven Allows” is a gorgeous film to look at and one that contains a rather complex social study for what could have just been a simple romance film. In 2010, it was declared to have one of the greatest film romances of all time by “The Guardian” newspaper, proving that some big screen love stories will forever remain timeless.
To learn more about ”All That Heaven Allows,” check out Criterion’s page here.
If you would like updated on all things Nathan and “The Criterion Summer,” check out our Facebook page here.