Incest, alcoholism, blackmail, murder, sexual promiscuity and dark secrets. This scathing indictment of the state of the family in Fifties America throws all of this - and more - into its vibrant Technicolor pot and gives the mixture a good stir. Although not perhaps director Douglas Sirk's best film, this was the one that caught the critics' eye, and won Dorothy Malone an Oscar for her portrayal of a nymphomaniac Texan. It has melodrama on a grand scale, with enough scandal and double-dealing to fill an entire series of Dynasty or Dallas. The men (Rock Hudson, Robert Keith) are strong, the women (Malone, Lauren Bacall) are sexy, the family black sheep (Robert Stack as an alcoholic playboy) is as nasty as a cornered rattlesnake, the cars are sleek, phallic and fast, and the houses (more like mansions) are truly magnificent. Another time, another place.

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