Review of All I Desire (1953) by Art S — 04 Oct 2013

Here's Barbara Stanwyck in a Douglas Sirk film just before he started his run of masterworks (Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, Imitation of Life, etc.). She is the only reason to watch this film (but always a good reason), as the rest of the cast, apart from Lena the cook (played by Lotte Stein), is rather unexceptional.

Sirk is fixated, as usual, on people's concerns for what others think and how that can ruin lives -- this time at the turn of the 20th century in small town Wisconsin. Stanwyck, who earlier left her family for an acting career -- I mean left her husband and small children -- returns by surprise 12 or 13 years later.

Pure melodrama but only 79 minutes and black and white. Stanwyck was luckier to be paired with Fred MacMurray in the later Sirk outing, There's Always Tomorrow.