All I Desire (1953)

Director:

Douglas Sirk

Writers:

Robert Blees (writer)
Carol Ryrie Brink (novel)

Release Date:

July 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Now He Knew Her as Other Men Had!

Plot:

In 1910, a wayward mother re-visits the family she deserted.

Plot Keywords:

Butterfly Collection | Framed Butterfly | Melodrama | Beautiful Woman | Period Piece

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Naomi Murdock
Richard Carlson	...	Henry Murdoch
Lyle Bettger	...	Dutch Heineman
Marcia Henderson	...	Joyce Murdoch
Lori Nelson	...	Lily Murdoch
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	Sara Harper
Richard Long	...	Russ Underwood
Billy Gray	...	Ted Murdoch
Dayton Lummis	...	Col. Underwood
Lotte Stein	...	Lena Maria Svenson
Fred Nurney	...	Hans Peterson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Donald Kerr	...	Comic (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Stopover (USA) (working title)
You Belong to Me (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Australia:PG | Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #16364) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Circle Drive, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

Film debut of Sally Fraser.

Quotes:

Naomi Murdoch: We're a big disappointment to each other, aren't we? You've got a mother with no principles; I've got a daughter with no guts.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Acting Normal: Billy Gray on Douglas Sirk's All I Desire (2008) (V)

Soundtrack:

All I Desire

All I desirk

Douglas Sirk was the prince of the melodrama in the fifties.However,there are two kinds of melodramas in his work :the extravaganzas ("Imitation of life" which nearly cut Stahl's version,"written on the wind" "magnificent obsession" ) and the intimate dramas which verge on realism: "all that heaven allows" or "tarnished angels" are good examples.When he connects all the links of the chain ,he produces his masterpiece ,the overlooked "a time to love and a time to die" .

"All I desire " belongs to the second kind of melodrama;its story is simple -but that kind of simplicity ,it takes years and years of practise and a touch of genius to make it work.Barbara Stanwyck -excellent- is the black sheep of the family,the mean woman who walked out on her family and what a nice family they are!In the small town where her husband is a principal in a high school ,people will talk.And there's the prodigal woman's erstwhile beau.

(Re)building of a family was one of Sirk's main permanent features: Hudson and Wyman in "ALL that heavens" and "magnificent obsession" ,Sarah Jane and her mother's friends in "imitation of life" .