User Reviews

And so are the gossipy men in the small town where a lady of scandal who returns to town an allegedly great actress just in time for her daughter's stage debut. Barbara Stanwyck, in her busiest screen year as a film star, is glorious and quite the star. Her character, a small town girl from the wrong side of the tracks who married onto the right side yet never fit in, left to pursue an acting career and with some success ended up in burlesque. Scandal involving a secret old beau on the side has tongues wagging, including an elderly train station master who starts tongues wagging. Mixed reactions from her estranged family also adds to the drama.

Set in small town U.S.A. in the early 1900's, this has all the makings of a smart little drama of the American family which isn't quite Andy Hardy's. Richard Carlson is her torn ex-husband who has gone on with his life with drama teacher Maureen O'Sullivan, while Lyle Bettger is the mysterious former flame whose past with Stanwyck seems to be unknown to all but a few. Of the two daughters, oldest Marcia Henderson is totally resentful while younger Lori Nelson has worshiped her from afar. Youngest child Billy Gray is at that vulnerable age where having his mother back seems to be a dream cone true, but with Stanwyck and Bettger's past a secret except to the audience, more obvious questions are raised.

Another delight is lovable German actress Lotte Stein as the housekeeper who was in on Nelson coming back. Richard Long, the oldest son of Ma and Oa Kettle, joins younger Kettle sister Nelson, here playing stuffy Henderson's boyfriend who is entranced with Stanwyck to Henderson's annoyance. As produced by tearjerker king Ross Hunter, this is quite a likable soap opera style melodrama, not quite as sappy as his big color movies, yet nicely detailed and extremely engrossing. The conflicts seem real and the conclusion bittersweet. This reaffirms why Stanwyck remains my favorite star of Hollywood's golden age.

Although they made just two films together - this and There's Always Tomorrow (1956) - the director and the actress seemed perfectly suited for one another. He made melodramas; she played overwrought to perfection. The only thing missing in this one is the Technicolor treatment, something Sirk's frequent collaborating producer Ross Hunter wouldn't spring for this time. According to TCM's Ben Mankiewicz, there were disagreements between them regarding the title (Sirk wanted to use novelist Carol Brink's "Stopover") and the ending as well; the producer getting what he wanted, of course.

Stanwyck plays Naomi Murdoch, a down-in-the-dumps vaudeville actress who it's later revealed had a reason to abandon her husband and three children in their small town of Riverdale, Wisconsin, where nothing ever changes. The flimsiness of the reason is the weakest part of this drama. However, Naomi decides to return home after receiving a letter from her middle child Lily (Lori Nelson), a talented wannabe actress herself. Lily, a high school senior who idolizes the mother she believes is a famous actress, implores her mother to return for her final play before graduation. One can imagine the scandal when Naomi arrives in town unexpectedly; suddenly the play is sold out for everyone wanting to gawk at her.

Of course, not everyone in Naomi's family is as happy about her return as Lily, who envisions leaving with mother to a stage life of her own as the only ticket out of Riverdale. Naomi's husband Henry (Richard Carlson), Riverdale High's Principal, their oldest daughter Joyce (Marcia Henderson), and Henry's girlfriend Sara Harper (Maureen O'Sullivan) are the least excited, with Joyce - who's engaged to Russ Underwood (Richard Long) - bordering on hostility from resentment that she'd had to fill her absent mother's shoes. Aside from Lily, the family's cook Lena Engstrom (Lotte Stein) is perhaps the most excited, seeing Naomi's return as an opportunity for her own nuptials, and youngest son Ted (Billy Gray) finds himself desperate for his mother's love and attention.

Given staid Henry's scholastic nature, Ted's surrogate father has been store owner outdoorsman Dutch Heinemann (Lyle Bettger); he employs Ted at his store, teaching him to shoot a rifle etc. Dutch was also the reason that Naomi fled Riverdale in the first place. The two were having an affair that had progressed to a point that everybody in town knew what was going on, though Naomi believed that she was leaving before anyone would find out.

So beautiful and unique is Naomi, a fish-out-of-water in Riverdale, that she soon stirs Henry's heart anew, prompting Sara to withdraw. But while the two are rekindling their love for one another, Dutch blusters his way back into the picture, and Naomi - with a street toughness she lacked when she'd left years earlier- aims to put an end to it once and for all. When she nearly does Dutch in, the scandal is front and center again and ... this is where the ending would have been different if Director Sirk had had his way.

This early Sirk melodrama, shot in black and white, is a minor film, yet showcases the flair of the German director in enhancing tired story lines into something resembling art. Set in the 1910's, Barbara Stanwyck is the woman who has sinned by abandoning her small-town husband and family for the lure of the Chicago stage. She never fulfilled her ambitions, and is drawn back to the town she left by an eager letter from her daughter informing her that she too has taken a liking to the theatre (a high school production, that is). Back in her old town she once again comes up against small-mindedness, and has to deal with her hostile eldest daughter, bewildered (and boring) husband (Richard Carlson) and ex-lover. The plot is nothing new but Sirk sets himself apart by creating meaningful compositions, with every frame carefully shot, and he is aided immeasurably by having Stanwyck as his leading lady. It runs a crisp 76 minutes, and that's just as well, because the material doesn't really have the legs to go any further.

A second class vaudeville theater is where Naomi Murdoch finds herself after a few years trying to make a go of her talent. It is far from the glamorous life she was aiming for. She has a surprise waiting for her: a letter from her daughter Lily who invites her to come see her act in her high school play. Naomi does not have anything to lose, or so she thinks, when she decides to go back to the provincial town she abandoned ten years before.

The family Naomi left behind is quite shaken as she arrives. Most troubled of all is Henry Murdoch who was left to bring up the three children. He is the highly regarded high school principal of Riverdale. He has a reputation to live up to, so it is not surprising he is bothered by the uninvited Naomi's presence. After all, he has never stopped loving her. Joyce her oldest daughter, going steady with one of the town's richest young men, is not happy at all. She resents what her mother put the family through. Happiest of all is Lily, the girl with theatrical aspirations. The youngest son, Ted, is confused by his mother's appearance.

To make matters worse, there is Dutch Heinemann, the man Naomi had an affair, and the cause of her departure. He wants to renew what they had one time. Naomi, though, is not too happy to be around him. Not only that, but she suddenly realizes how much she lost by throwing all away when she decided to run away. Naomi must examine herself and decide what she wants. It is clear Henry still cares for her, in spite of the life he endured after being left alone.

Douglas Sirk came to Hollywood in the 1940s with a tide of European filmmakers who decided to pack it in rather than working in the war torn continent. "All I Desire" seems to be a turning point for Mr. Sirk. He went to make a name for himself in what came after. He turned melodramas such as this one into a classy product much admired by the movie going public. The basis is a novel "Stopover" by Carol Ryrie Brink, a perfect story that suited Mr. Sirk's talent.

Casting Barbara Stanwyck as Naomi Murdoch paid off tremendously for the director. Ms. Stanwyck was in her forties at the time the film went into production and the mature actress shows she was always an asset for anyone wanting to work with her. Her Naomi is perfect. Richard Carlson plays Henry, the husband Naomi abandoned. Marcia Henderson appears as the older Joyce and Lori Nelson as Lily. Lyle Bettger, the villain in most of the films where he appeared, is at hand to play Dutch Heinemann, who wants to rekindle the passion he felt for Naomi. Maureen O'Sullivan appears as Sara Harper, the school teacher in love with Henry.

Douglas Sirk directed this gaslight era melodrama about a woman who deserted her family and ten years later upon receipt of a letter from her daughter Lori Nelson who wants to go on the stage just like mom did, Barbara Stanwyck returns to her stodgy mid western town and her stodgy husband Richard Carlson who is the high school principal.

Stanwyck's three children run the gamut of reaction to her reappearance. The oldest Marcia Henderson is daddy's little girl and really resents mom coming home. Nelson is infatuated with what she thinks is a glamorous life in the theater and is thrilled mom came home to see her in a school play. Billy Gray is the youngest and he barely remembers her, but he's happy to see her.

Douglas Sirk made a big mistake in casting Lyle Bettger as the store owner with whom Stanwyck was having a fling before she left. Maybe it's simply image, but Bettger played some of the biggest psychotic villains of the era and I can't believe Stanwyck ever went near him. Someone who was a bit more suave and elegant would have fit the bill perfectly.

Bigger mistake was a forced happy ending which was contrary to the book this film came from. There was just too much that happened for Stanwyck ever to return.

Still Barbara is quite effective, her best scenes are with her two daughters, Henderson and Nelson. All I Desire will not go down in her ten best list, but fans won't be disappointed.

Set at the turn of the century, an over-the-hill actress Naomi Murdoch returns to the family she left behind after receiving a letter from her daughter, who wants her actress mother see her perform in a school play production. Trouble is, she left previously under a cloud, divorcing her husband after an affair with another man and she now does not even know her three children. The narrow-mindedness of the small town made it impossible for her before and begins to make it difficult once again.

Douglas Sirk is most famous for his 50's melodramas, known a little derogatively at the time as 'women's films'. This is an early example of this type of Sirk film. It's a pretty involving movie too. It explores a number of themes such as the emotional fallout caused by the return of a woman of 'ill repute' and the ways it affects the desires of all the characters in her direct orbit. It's also to a lesser extent about city vs. small town, which can also be read as vice vs. honesty but contrastingly as open-mindedness vs. small-mindedness. So there are a few good ideas in this particular mix. Unfortunately the studio imposed a happy ending onto it – an ending that simply isn't true to the story and impacts its overall effect a little.

Here we are again, folks, Sudsville, USA, Douglas Sirk, sole owner and proprietor. At one level this is Meet Me In St Louis without the technicolor and the songs and also, it must be said, without Vincente Minnelli. Sirk is one of those directors you either love or can take or leave but who could never be accused of less than fine craftsmanship. It's 1910 and Barbara Stanwyck is lying a bad second to Fink's Mules on the vaudeville circuit; years ago she abandoned her husband and children to become a star on Broadway except someone forgot to tell the Producers and she ended up one stop away from burlesque. At this low point she receives a letter from her daughter (no one bothered to wonder just HOW the daughter got her address) who's about to graduate and will be appearing in her High School play. Against her better judgment Stanwyck goes back for the gig, sets tongues wagging anew and, in the fullness of time, is reconciled with her high school principal dull husband, Richard Carlson. It's a fairly painless way to spend 100 minutes or so, Stanwyck didn't know how to turn in a bad performance and Billy Gray, playing her youngest son, would soon be familiar to Doris Day fans when he played Wesley Winfield in On Moonlight Bay and its sequel By The Light Of The Silvery Moon. Certainly worth a look.