Douglas Sirk

Legendary director Douglas Sirk's (Written on the wind, Imitation of life) La Habanera is a lushly poetic and boldly modern musical drama decades ahead of its time. Working at Germany's famed UFA Studios (Metropolis), under the very noses of the Nazi authorities that would later force him into Hollywood exile and eminence, Sirk transformed a glossy musical vehicle for UFA's "new Garbo" Zarah Leander into a dark and intimate anti-colonial melodrama....

An actress comes home to the husband and children she abandoned years before.

A millionaire decides to give his fortune to his late beloved's family with unexpected results.

Cary Scott, an attractive and wealthy New England widow, creates a social outcry in her community and within her family when she becomes romantically involved with Ron Kirby, her much younger gardener.

Reckless playboy Bob Merrick crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from a rescue team. They have to use the town's only resuscitator. At that same moment the beloved, local doctor has a heart attack and dies while waiting for the life-saving device. When Bob learns about the doctor's secret - to give selflessly and in secret - he decides to give it a try. He alienates the doctor's widow, Helen, with whom Bob has now fallen in love....

Clifford Groves wants to spend more time alone with his wife, Marion, but her domestic duties keep her busy. Alone on a getaway weekend he had planned with Marion, Clifford runs into Norma, a stunning former employee -- and old flame -- who is now successful, divorced, and seemingly eager to be with him.