The film press compared the movie favorably to Magnificent Obsession (1954), which also starred Wyman and Hudson and was directed by Sirk. A review in Motion Picture Daily was generally positive and praised Sirk for his use of color and mise en scène, saying: "In a print by Technicolor, the exterior shots and the interior settings are so beautifully photographed that they point up the action of the story with telling effect."[11]
Although Sirk's reputation waned in the 1960s—as he was dismissed as a director of dated and insubstantial Hollywood melodramas—it was revived in the 1970s due to the praise of New German Cinema directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the publication of Jon Halliday's Sirk on Sirk (1971), in which the filmmaker describes his aesthetic and (often-subversive) social perspective.[12] His reputation, and that of All That Heaven Allows, has grown since then, with critic Richard Brody describing him as a master of both melodrama and comedy, and the film as remarkable for its use of Henry David Thoreau's Walden as a homegrown American philosophy depicted as a "vital and ongoing experience."[13]
On Rotten Tomatoes, All That Heaven Allows has an approval rating of 91% based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The consensus summarizes: "Big heart, big drama, and even bigger colors, All That Heaven Allows is tip top Douglas Sirk."[14]
