Reckless playboy Bob Merrick crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town’s only resuscitator while a local hero, Dr. Phillips, dies waiting for the life-saving device. Merrick then tries to right his wrongs with the doctor’s widow, Helen, falling in love with her in the process.
Direction
Sirk's saturated frames weaponize color against the American dream.
Acting
Wyman's blind scenes—she learned Braille, wore painful lenses.
Cinematography
Every shadow screams repressed longing. Pure visual opera.
Director
Douglas Sirk
Jane Wyman
Helen Phillips
Rock Hudson
Bob Merrick
Barbara Rush
Joyce Phillips
Agnes Moorehead
Nancy Ashford
Otto Kruger
Edward Randolph
Gregg Palmer
Tom Masterson
Paul Cavanagh
Dr. Henry Giraud
Sara Shane
Valerie Daniels
Richard H. Cutting
Dr. Derwin Dodge
Judy Nugent
Judy
Helen Kleeb
Mrs. Eden
Rudolph Anders
Dr. Albert Fuss
Fred Nurney
Dr. Laradetti
John Mylong
Dr. Hofer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sirk shot the film in 18 days. Rock Hudson was so nervous he memorized everyone's lines and would whisper them to co-stars if they flubbed.
This was the first of Hudson and Sirk's collaborations that would define 1950s Hollywood's hidden queer sensibility—hetero surfaces, subversive depths.
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