There's Always Tomorrow (1956)

A husband (Fred MacMurray in one of his best roles), though taken for granted by his family, seems complacent as the head of a typical suburban household. When an old flame (Barbara Stanwyck) comes back into his life, his life no longer seems as fulfilling. Directed by Douglas Sirk, this is perhaps the one Sirk jewel still to take its place among his remarkable string of ruminations on the American dream and landscape in 1950s America. Sirk lets us (and Stanwyck) see what MacMurray can't see and while we sympathize with him, we realize his wife (Joan Bennett) is also a victim of the suburban strait jacket. There can't be any winners in a situation like this and Sirk's ending is bittersweet. Everything seems resolved, tied up in a ribbon but it's a fool's paradise and that ribbon is loosely tied and ready to unravel. Is settling for the lesser of two evils ever an answer to contentment? Shooting in B&W instead of color allows Sirk more restraint (shown in the perfomances) than the lush overheated palettes of Techinicolor. With Pat Crowley, William Reynolds, Jane Darwell and Gigi Perreau.