Customer Reviews

All I Desire [VHS]

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The mark of director Douglas Sirk and producer Ross Hunter is all over this glossy melodrama. ALL I DESIRE gave Barbara Stanwyck one of her meatier roles during the lean years of the 1950s', playing a disgraced woman who returns to her hometown.

Based on the novel "Stopover" by Carol Ryrie Brink, the story concerns Naomi Murdoch (Barbara Stanwyck), a third-rate vaudevilian performer who abandoned her husband and children following a torrid affair in their tight-knit Wisconsin town. Ten years later, after receiving a heartfelt letter from younger daughter Lily (Lori Nelson), Naomi returns home to see her perform in the highschool play, re-opening old wounds and awakening painful memories.

With it's lush Edwardian period design, ALL I DESIRE is a very memorable movie, especially for fans of Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck must have relished playing such a full-blooded role; the 1950s' were not kind to actresses like Stanwyck, with most of the better roles going to younger stars.

The supporting cast also includes prime turns from Richard Carlson (as Naomi's schoolmaster husband), Lyle Bettger (the former lover hell-bent on resuming the affair), Marcia Henderson (the bitter older daughter), and Maureen O'Sullivan (the highschool drama teacher).

ALL I DESIRE, currently available on DVD in the United Kingdom, should hopefully receive a domestic release soon. Highly-recommended.

What we get in "All I Desire" is fine later day Barbara Stanwyck in a role perfectly suited to her seasoned talents. Indeed I personally judge this film as one of her better roles from this 1950's period of her career when great female parts for more mature actresses were becoming scarse.

"All I Desire" is the phrase upon which the premise of this story is based in that there exists a desire by the lead character to be excepted back into a family where a serious mistake was made many years previous and where the wounds caused by that error have not entirely healed. Stanwyck plays Naomi Murdoch a small town Wisconsin mother who in an earlier time sacrificed her family life for a stage career that in the years ahead never went nowhere. Naomi realises the mistakes she made and what she gave up and finds in an unexpected invitation to attend her daughters performance in a play the perfect excuse to return home and try to rebuild her life with some purpose and meaning. Upon her arrival home she finds unfortunately herself the object of curiosity and ridicule in a town riddled with double standards. She also finds her family situation no easy thing to deal with whereby one daughter worships her while the other is hostile to her because of her abandonment of them all those years ago. Naomi also finds that her husband who formerly worshiped her has moved on in life and has developed a satifying relationship with the local school teacher. When after her arrival further scandal erupts in the small town she finds that possibly any chance for a new beginning could be dashed forever.

Out of such vintage melodrama often comes great acting and in her performance Stanwyck brings a sound conviction to her playing of a woman who wanted more out of her ordinary life but having gone through the school of hard knocks then realises that what she got was not that desirable after all. She brings her usual power house performing to the role whether she is perfroming in her cheap review show, trying to reconnect with her children she abandoned so many years ago, taking on the malicious gossips in the town or handling the unwelcome advances of a past lover who could ruin everthing for her. Produced by Ross Hunter and ably directed by Douglas Sirk who was expert at maximising the effect of potentially syrupy stories as this, it is a good marriage of Director and lead Actress.

"All I Desire" is Stanwyck's show all the way and Richard Carlson as her husband Henry Murdoch really is window dressing for the lead's performance. Maureen O'Sullivan makes a welcome return to a major role as Sara Harper the local school teacher who with the sudden arrival of Naomi in town finds her whole world and future life with Henry suddenly threatened. Marcia Henderson is also very effective in the role of the older resentful daughter who cannot forgive the injury she and her family sustained by Naomi's walking out on them all those years ago. It's also interesting to see the performance of Richard Long as Naomi's daughters suitor. Destined for a short sad life Long would work again with Barbara Stanwyck in the 1960's where he played her son on the long running highly successful western series "The Big Valley".

"All I Desire" has a polished turn of the century look about it and the costumes and settings are very lavish and effective as per usual for a Ross Hunter production where great care was always taken with the look and feel of a production. For those that enjoy high melodrama delivered with convincing performances "All I Desire" is an enjoyable viewing experience and despite its tacked on and quite unsatisfactory happy ending, really pulls no punches in exposing the holes in small town mentality and lifestyles. Barbara Stanwyck is of course the overwhelming reason to watch this film and even in her more mature roles later in her career she is a joy to watch. Her performance here is earnest and heartfelt and really makes this film a worthwhile viewing experience.

If you like soap operas you would like this movie.It is a little like the soap opera Santa Barbara when Sophia (Judith McConnell) came back to the family.Lori Nelson who co starred in the syndicated 1950's "How To Marry A Millionaire" with Barbara Eden and Merry Anders plays the daughter in the movie who wants to be an actress.Marcia Henderson who co starred in the movie "The Wayward Girl" with Barbara Eden plays Lori Nelson's character's sister in the movie.

Pure licorice soaked overnight in home made grapes syrup and stewed in honey. It is so romantic, so honey pie dramatic and sweetheart tragic that we just wonder if that kind of Hollywood love affairs should not be multiplied all over the world to make better evil and worse good, or maybe to make evil better and good worse, or maybe to make better good and worse evil, or even to make worse evil and better good, or whatever crisscross shooting game to kill twenty birds with one stone. And here mind you a whole flock of migrating ducks were shot with one bullet from a simple hunting rifle. I can't tell you how good it is and how bat it is. The bad mother comes back from Chicago or whatever and she is going to take her daughter to New York, but she was a bad mother who abandoned her family to be an actress, and she is going to be a bad wife this time and take one of her daughters along with her. Shame on you. Luckily the bad guy comes into the picture and summons her to their meeting point and she goes and he gets shot and she is the culprit of course and she has to leave and what is the husband, abandoned once and who is going to be abandoned a second time, going to do. Please pray it ends well and the husband is a good man and the daughter is satisfied in her New York ambition, and that the wife will be punished for running around with sexual birds of prey and sexual offenders, pray for the girl to be strong enough to take her mother away from her father, pray the father is going to be enough of a coward to accept the pressure from the town and from his own daughters and the fate that is menacing him and let her go. Pray for a good ending and prey on it. Oh! How much the bird prey is a praying manta.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

A great fan of Stanwyck's work I was quite entertained by this film; but only because she was in it - most of the other players are dull and mealy in contrast to the realistically alive Stanwyck. She's Naomi who's come back to the family she left for the stage ten years before. Needless to say that she ISN'T warmly received (except by the cook). Her daughter wants to be an actress as well (she has two; the other won't have anything to do with her)

In a great scene Stanwyck chides "You have a mother with questionable morals and I've got a daughter with no GUTS" Director Douglas Sirk was in awe of Stanwyck. Said he about the actress: "She impresses me as someone who has been touched deeply by life in some way; she has great depth as a person and that's exactly what the audience sees on the screen; for that reason, she is a great star. Notice that Richard Long appears in this little flick which was made a dozen years before he and Stanwyck would star in the great western series THE BIG VALLEY!

The mark of director Douglas Sirk and producer Ross Hunter is all over this glossy melodrama. ALL I DESIRE gave Barbara Stanwyck one of her meatier roles during the lean years of the 1950s', playing a disgraced woman who returns to her hometown.

Based on the novel "Stopover" by Carol Ryrie Brink, the story concerns Naomi Murdoch (Barbara Stanwyck), a third-rate vaudevilian performer who abandoned her husband and children following a torrid affair in their tight-knit Wisconsin town. Ten years later, after receiving a heartfelt letter from younger daughter Lily (Lori Nelson), Naomi returns home to see her perform in the highschool play, re-opening old wounds and awakening painful memories.

With it's lush Edwardian period design, ALL I DESIRE is a very memorable movie, especially for fans of Barbara Stanwyck. Stanwyck must have relished playing such a full-blooded role; the 1950s' were not kind to actresses like Stanwyck, with most of the better roles going to younger stars.

The supporting cast also includes prime turns from Richard Carlson (as Naomi's schoolmaster husband), Lyle Bettger (the former lover hell-bent on resuming the affair), Marcia Henderson (the bitter older daughter), and Maureen O'Sullivan (the highschool drama teacher).

ALL I DESIRE, currently available on DVD in the United Kingdom, should hopefully receive a domestic release soon. Highly-recommended.

Barbara Stanwyck is, as always, fine - I can't remember ever seeing her turn in a real stinker - in "All I Desire", one of Douglas Sirk's first soap opera/melodramas. In this film, she's a failed stage actress who returns to her Midwestern home town to try to reconnect with the family she left long ago to seek fame and fortune, especially her estranged husband and her daughter, who also dreams of theatrical stardom. She also has to deal with and resolve old scandal surrounding her name.