Really disappointed with the comments here...

"Implausible romance", "unintentional comedy", overly melodramatic"...were we watching the same film? I wonder how many of those comments are coming from people who were assigned the film for a class.

Did you happen to miss all the social commentary in the film? This film has some of the most subtle and well-realized symbolism I've seen anywhere, and I've seen a lot. It's also a stunning film to look at, the colors are vivid and the set design is extraordinary.

But I keep coming back to the social commentary, the film's daring questioning of 1950's vales and mores, particularly with regards to class and materialism. Hell, if looked at objectively, even the film's "happy ending" is sort of a crock...the guy was nearly killed and he's basically given up his own rustic passions to turn his cottage into a virtual duplicate of Cary's bourgeoise house! And yet, the film makes it very hard for us to HATE Cary, and therefore forces us to question our own flaws and prejudices.

This is a BALLSY film, and those who can't look past the melodramatic aspects simply need to consider the filmmaking trends of the time. Melodrama was IN, and it still is in a way, at least as far as the enormously acclaimed films of Pedro Almodovar are concerned. Sirk did this stuff RIGHT, he managed to convey these dramatic flourishes with all the operatic excess they deserved.

In contrast, think of the way this kind of "plot" is utilized in something like Autumn in New York...or the countless Lifetime movies that have used this basic blueprint with none of its exotic trappings and deeper thematic resonances. Those movies say nothing, this film was so ahead of its time that it STILL functions as an astute catalog of the petty, superficial albatrosses that continue to festoon the necks of would-be romantics in a nation that continues to place value on the wrong things.

Put simply, this is the film to show "values voters" who believe the "integrity of the family" should supercede everything else...including NATURAL (as opposed to socially constructed) love. Rock Hudson's eventual emergence as a gay man lends the film an extra transgressive kick for modern viewers.

So honestly, don't even watch this film if you aren't willing to give it a fair chance. There is much here that can't be found anywhere else...and if my word isn't good enough, ask another of this film's many fans: David Lynch!