All That Heaven Allows

Two people stand closely together inside a building, silhouetted against a frosted window with a snowy landscape outside. Warm light filters through the panes, creating a contrast between the cold outdoors and the intimate indoor setting.

Douglas Sirk's heartbreaking melodrama centers on an unexpected love affair between a upper-middle-class suburban widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) and her handsome, much younger gardener Ron Kirby, played with rugged charm by the dashing Rock Hudson. After their tender connection is met with scorn by her friends and children, Cary is forced to choose between the approval of her small-minded community and her own happiness.

Shot in Technicolor by acclaimed cinematographer Russell Metty, All That Heaven Allows is a subtle yet searing indictment of small town life, class-based prejudice, and 1950s American values. Sirk imbues each shot of this quintessential melodrama with an expressive complexity that at once affirms the intensity of the couple's connection and emphasizes its impossibility.

Part of our "Midcentury Melodrama" series. Courtesy of Universal Pictures and Swank Motion Pictures.