Martin Scorsese referred to Sirk as one of the 1950s directors who were 'smugglers', delivering serious messages under the guise of melodrama and entertainment - thus All That Heaven Allows is about the cruelty of the family, many of his other films are critical of the family. This one, his last, is all about race, and in fact I realised by the end that the only important story in it is that of the maid Juanita Moore and her almost-white daughter Susan Kohner - the stories involving Lana Turner and her daughter Sandra Dee are a cover-up, the acceptable face of 1950s Universal soap opera. That's why the funeral scene is given so much attention. And, of course, she's by far the nicest and best character in it, way better than Turner.
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| Brilliantly ironic |
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