Douglas Sirk's films, ranked
The top 3 according to 49 votes from people: All That Heaven Allows (1955) · Magnificent Obsession (1954) · There's Always Tomorrow (1956). (Updated Jul 22, 2020.)
The great Universal melodramas and the German films before them: Sirk's best, ordered from the BFI's ten essential films, the Chicago Reader and The Playlist.
Top 12
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1
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Jane Wyman, a widow, falls for her gardener Rock Hudson.
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2
Magnificent Obsession (1954)
The film that made Rock Hudson a star, with Jane Wyman.
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3
There's Always Tomorrow (1956)
Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck meet again.
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4
Final Accord (1936)
A melodrama built around Beethoven's Ninth.
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5
Imitation of Life (1959)
Lana Turner and a mother and daughter divided by the colour line; his last Hollywood film.
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6
To New Shores (1937)
Zarah Leander transported to an Australian penal colony.
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7
All I Desire (1953)
Barbara Stanwyck returns to the family she left.
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8
The Tarnished Angels (1957)
Barnstorming pilots, from William Faulkner's Pylon.
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9
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958)
A German soldier on leave, from Erich Maria Remarque.
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10
Shockproof (1949)
A parole officer falls for the woman he supervises, written by Samuel Fuller.
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11
Written on the Wind (1956)
An oil dynasty in Texas; Oscar for Dorothy Malone.
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12
La Habanera (1937)
Zarah Leander in Puerto Rico, one of his last German films.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (1)
All That Heaven Allows first is correct. Those colours! Fassbinder and Haynes both remade it in a way.