Deciding to take a break from the color melodramas that had made him a force in American film making of the 1950's, Douglas Sirk decided do a black and white adaptation from William Faulkner's novel Pylon, which turns out is also a melodrama. Taking 3 of the 4 stars of his previous years hit 'Written on the Wind', substituting Jack Carson for Lauren Bacall.
Set in 1930's Louisiana, Rock Hudson plays a newspaper reporter trying to do a feature story on husband and wife daredevils Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone, only to be dragged into the dysfunctional three way relationship between them and their mechanic Jack Carson, who might be the real father of the couples son.
While there are good things in the movie, especially a couple of legitimately unnerving flight sequences, I couldn't tell how earnest I was supposed to take this whole thing. That is an issue I've encountered before with Sirk's films, sometimes a second viewing imparts a totally different reading then the initial watch. So in time it would probably be worth taking a second look, I may end up loving it, but on first brush I found it rather overdone in some places and undercooked in others. **1/2
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