MovieChat Forums > All That Heaven Allows (1955) Discussion > The cocktail party

The cocktail party

posted 11 years ago by michaeljcummings
2 replies | jump to latest

I actually still find the cocktail party where Carrie introduces Ron to everyone so effective and squirmy and violent. Her friends are such awful snobs and Howard nearly rapes her. They practically stone her, and her two children are so immature and hostile. The social pariah status she earns in 4 hours is extreme. That party was kind of like Appointment in Samara. Anyway, the movie is strangely captivating. Jane has this saintly quality and Rock has this solid quality - they make everyone else seem
shallow - which they are. The sheer froth and frenzy people drive themselves into over a 'mixed' marriage is surreal. And the way the women objectify Rock is prescient. All in all, an intriguing flick.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] AvaSinatra59 (195) 7 years ago

Great observations. Thank you. I now know Stonington is a real CT town, but I thought it was fictional for the fact that she is, in effect, stoned. As I recall, Rock's character tells Jane's that her children reacted the way they did to him because he wasn't a "pillar of the community" as their father was. She is pilloried, as well. Her daughter speaks of widows having once been sealed up in their dead husband's tombs, and then says that doesn't happen anymore, to which Jane's character sarcastically quips "Well, perhaps not in Egypt."