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MovieMail's Review
Douglas Sirk remains one of cinema's sharpest observers of human nature, and the string of melodramas he made in the 1950s, although glossy and colourful on the surface, reveal a cynical and pessimistic view when examined more closely. Although his movies were derisively labeled as “women's pictures” by critics, directors such as Godard and Fassbinder later praised his films, applauding his use of cinematic distancing techniques to coax the audience into examining the message behind the images. This magnificent box set contains seven Sirk’s finest works, most of which have never appeared on DVD before.
The earliest film in the collection - Has Anybody Seen My Gal? - is the most atypical work featured. A bright and jolly Technicolor musical, it boasts a tremendous comedy performance from Charles Coburn as a millionaire who decides to donate a portion of his wealth to a poor, worthy family. However, their happiness wanes as their social standing increases as people start reacting towards them with snobbery, or offering false friendship. Although Sirk's themes of jealousy and fakery feature in the film, this is ultimately a frivolous piece of escapism, and should be enjoyed as such. A couple of years later he directed All I Desire, boasting a superb performance from Barbara Stanwyck as a wayward mother who returns to the family she deserted years before to go on the stage.
Magnificent Obsession has perhaps the soapiest of all of Sirk's plotlines - a man accidentally causes the death of a doctor and the blindness of his widow. Wracked with guilt, he trains to be a surgeon to restore the woman's sight, falling in love with her as he does so, although she does not realise who he is. On the surface this is an old school Hollywood weepie, and both Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman deliver moving performances. However, the inherent creepiness of the hero's plan is subtly implied throughout the film, and adds a disquieting layer to the piece.
This was a massive hit at the box office, and Wyman and Hudson starred opposite each other again in the fantastic All That Heaven Allows, Sirk's masterpiece - a ruthless depiction of spite in suburbia, and a heavy influence on Fassbinder (who remade it as Fear Eats The Soul) and Todd Haynes. Wyman stars as Cary, a wealthy widow, who gradually begins an affair with a younger gardener. The couple soon find themselves the objects of disgust from their neighbours and Cary's children. Although it is beautifully photographed throughout, Sirk scathingly shows the ugly paranoia and hatred that can lurk behind suburban walls. There are some great moments here – Cary's daughter sobbing without tears when she confesses her “guilt”, and the classic scene where the selfish children lose interest in their mother once she has given up her happiness for their sake, and give her a replacement companion – a television.
Written On The Wind, a tale of the super-rich living in Texas, chooses to focus on the misfits of the family rather than the well-adjusted characters played by Hudson and Lauren Bacall. Although the roles of the drunken son (Robert Stack, never better) and his nymphomaniac sister (Dorothy Malone, who won an Oscar for this role) are the black sheep, it is they who elicit the most sympathy. Filled with torrid dialogue and obviously artificial sets, Sirk brilliantly draws attention to the artificiality of cinema, and the superficiality of affluent American life. Pedro Almodóvar famously said of the film: “I have seen Written on the Wind a thousand times, and I cannot wait to see it again.”
The Tarnished Angels, shot (unusually for Sirk) in sharp black and white, again stars Stack and Malone as outsiders, this time as stunt aerial performers regarded as gypsies by the townsfolk. This sees Sirk at his bleakest, and the tragic character of Stack's pilot is devastatingly rendered – a self-destructive man who rejects every chance of happiness and treats the woman he loves (Malone) abominably, he kamikazes his way through his pathetic life to his ultimate destruction.
Sirk's final film, Imitation Of Life, is a remake of a classic 1930s film about an actress's relationship with her black maid. Sirk plays with the racial tension of the piece, and once again it is the most obviously destructive character who is the most sympathetic - the maid's daughter, who can pass for white and is ashamed of her black heritage. Her treatment of her well-meaning mother is appalling, yet Susan Kohner's incendiary performance, filled with desperation and drive, is astonishing, and the audience empathises with her unenviable plight. After the death of one of the major characters (the best death bed scene ever conveyed on film?), repentance takes place at a funeral. But, as Sirk said, “you don't believe the happy end, and you're not really supposed to.”
Sirk’s films have aged incredibly well, and appeal to film lovers and film students alike, as they can be enjoyed on different levels and reward repeated viewings. A genius of cinema, this welcome release of his greatest films on this splendid box set is long overdue.
Seven of the master of melodrama's finest works, including his masterpiece - All That Heaven Allows, a ruthless depiction of spite in suburbia, and a heavy influence on Fassbinder. Features Imitation Of Life (1959), Magnificent Obsession (1954), Written On The Wind (1956), All I Desire (1953), Has Anybody Seen My Gal (1952), All That Heaven Allows (1955) and The Tarnished Angels (1958).
