All I Desire
Naomi Murcoch (Stanwyck), a woman who has abandoned her family to pursue a career on the stage, returns to her small hometown many years later, to attend a performance of her teenage daughter.
She and her husband had two daughters, now teenagers. One is a respectful, family-oriented girl, and the other is a restless spirit, eager to emulate her mother, by leaving town and heading to New York to pursue a career on the stage. There is also a son, not as old as his sisters, who can’t even remember his mother.
As for the husband, how will he feel about his wife’s return? And who is the strange man who appears to be tailing her?
This is one of Sirk’s more subdued dramas. It has been suggested that it is downright underwhelming. But such criticisms seem unwarranted. It is quite likely that Sirk was trying to depict the majority of the characters in this film as very ordinary folk, in contrast with the exotic character of Naomi Murdoch. For instance, there’s an interesting scene in which she turns up to her daughter’s play. The townsfolk are more interested in seeing her, than in seeing the play, and it’s important to note how Stanwyck is dressed, in glaring contrast to the other women in the scene. She dazzles all those around her, quite literally.
For trivia buffs: look out for the scene in which Barbara Stanwyck dances with Richard Long. Years later, they were to appear together in the television show, The Big Valley.
Stanwyck’s character would be considered neglectful nowadays, but in early 1900’s small-town American, she would have been regarded as positively wanton. In some repsects, this was a risqué topic for Sirk to address, especially in conservative 1950’s America. Yet he does so in an intelligent manner, while retaining his characteristic moral shades of grey. Visually, Sirk lives up to his reputation. Fans of Sirk’s more sumptuous films shouldn’t be deterred by the film’s not being in colour. Some of the shots are magnificent. His use of light is very good in this film. Look out for a scene in which Stanwyck is boarding a horse-drawn carriage. Sirk’s attention to detail is marvellous.