Customer Reviews

Written on the Wind (Widescreen)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sure does, she never looked better in them black courthouse duds ..... perfect control, perfect character modulation ....quite an acting lesson!

SAME goes for the riveting performance of ROBERT STACK ....not sure what gives here - there are SO MANY MANY interpretations since then ... sterile? homophobic? alcoholic? Impotent? ... this one says it all and very NOM worthy for the stunning Mr. Stack [very hunkworthy - those bedroom scenes with Bacall].

As a matter of fact - all the leads, HUDSON, BACALL, STACK AND MALONE, provide great eye-candy. A pristine version of the DOUG SIRK stunner by Criterion.

Photography. Costumes, Art Direction as well as the score - all superlative!

To go on would be pointless - considering the censorship during this era ... this one still shines.

Nice cameo by GRANT WILLIAMS as the pump jockey ogled by Malone .... if you like your drama slightly OEDIPAL give or take a smattering of O'Neill ... grab an eyeful here.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

This movie was groundbreaking in several ways. It can be descibed best as a soap opera.

It is the story of a family and their relationship with friend of one of the family members. A man falls in love with the sister of his best friend. Later both of them fall in love with a different woman who they fight over. She later marries one of them but when she becomes pregnant, the husband, believing himself to be sterile, accuses his friend of being the father.

The film deals with subjects rarely (if ever) mentioned in movies of the time and sparked controversey as a result.

The DVD has theatrical trailers for both this film and the film "All That Heaven Allows" which was also directed by Douglas Sirk and released by Criterion as well. There is also a huge presentation and slideshow of many of Douglas Sirk's other films.

No one moves a muscle in this film without dramatic music swelling around them- the bright 'nothing looks like that in real life' technocolor lends a hand in decorating this fairly ridiculous story.

While everyone was weeping & drinking & loving & longing, I couldn't help but wonder why Lucy (Lauren Bacall) married the drunk guy in the first place- it was never explained & everyone would have been saved a lot of grief if she had just kept her distance. But alas, there would have been no movie.

If you think there's drama in your life, watch this movie. You may not have the soundtrack to accompany your highs & lows- but it will teach you that even your burnt toast can be a true moment of despair if you just play it up a little.

Fun to watch, but hard to take seriously.

Sirk, at his best. Melodrama, at its best. Acting, over the top. Music, awesome. Thanks for bringing Sirk type melodramas back, Hollywood. Liked "Far from Heaven" too. For those who liked watching Robert Stack each week in "Unsolved Mysteries" and remember "The Untouchables" its a must see. But good story, twisted, dyfunctional, and entertaining. Malone is magnificent as the nympho who lusts for Hudson. No luck there, but Dorothy does steal the show and the oscar that year for best supporting actress. Bacall is her polished best and Hudson's his stoic best. Good cinematography. > especially in DVD. More revivals of the genre most appreciated.

Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall star and Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone support in this quintessential 1950s Technicolor melodrama by the Master, imported German director Douglas Sirk. The plot involves a wealthy oil heir (Stack), the secretary (Bacall) loved by both him and his best friend (Hudson) and a bad-girl sister (Malone, in an Oscar-winning role). But neither the story nor the acting are really very good. What makes this film interesting to watch is the cinematography under Sirk's inspired direction, complete with twisted angles, and the symbolic use of color, mise-en-scene, and mirrors. Edward Platt, "Chief" from TV's "Get Smart" also appears as a doctor. The DVD extras are slight for a Criterion Collection, no featurette or commentary track. There is only a lengthy text discussion that allows you to scroll through descriptions and sometimes stills from all of Sirk's films. This text discussion is well-written and well-researched but will take you a long time to scroll through, and the often redundant images of production stills and lobby cards will make you frustrated. All in all, this DVD is worth watching, though I doubt you would want to view it over and over.

If you like campy movies with name stars you might like this silly flick. A Texas oil tycoon's life is ruined by his grown children. Robert Stack is the alcoholic son, Rock Hudson is the family friend who left but came back with a dishwater dull wife (an unusually bland Lauren Bacall), but Dorothy Malone is outrageous as the unabashed nymphomaniac daughter out to seduce old childhood pal Hudson. She's practically the whole show and the only real life in this movie. Incredibly, she won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this. She tools around town in her little sports car picking up guys. She also does two wild mambos meant to show what a tramp her character is...one in a tight evening gown with huge cha-cha flounces on the bottom and the other in a Jezebel red chiffon lingerie number that shows her kicking her legs in wild abandon. Look out for that one! It's pure cheese on toast. In my opinion, she doesn't get enough to do in this movie. Otherwise, it's just a tedious excercise in overwrought melodrama. Trashy and campy but, except for Malone, too dull to be really enjoyable.

Uber-melodrama, '50s style, with adultery and scandal packaged in silly circumlocution. Lauren Bacall inexplicably falls for the super-creepy Robert Stack, who simply oozes onscreen portraying the sleazy, self-tortured black sheep heir of a rich Texas oil family. Meanwhile, Rock Hudson moons around in the background, pining for his lost love. Dorothy Malone steals the show as a hard-partying, dyed-blonde hotty who carries her own unrequited torch (for Hudson) All four characters tear one another apart until the film reaches its hysterical and wind-swept crescendo. Watch for Malone's silly, spasmodic, ungainly "mambo" dancing, which is almost worth the price of admission alone. This isn't really a great movie -- sort of a tepid rehash of "Giant," but it does provide some good campy fun.

Criterion's 2nd soaper from Douglas Sirk, *Written on the Wind*, is not quite as superb as the other film, *All That Heaven Allows*. I refer to Sirk's own comment that the line between Art and Trash is very fine one. Here, the Trash element nearly obscures that line altogether: there are moments when it seems that we're simply watching a Technicolor rendition of *Dallas*. The story is preposterous in the TV-drama vein: a rich oil magnate's two spoiled-rotten adult children (Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone) indulge in self-destructive behavior whilst two interlopers (Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall) stand by helplessly and watch. Rock Hudson is the local boy from much less wealthy origins who befriends the brother and sister from childhood; Bacall is a secretary who Stack picks up and marries in a fit of attempted self-improvement. *Written on the Wind* makes sure that we like none of these people. Stack is a petulant, violent drunk, and his sister Malone is a nymphomaniac witch. As for Hudson and Bacall: Hudson, it soon becomes clear, rather enjoys his innate superiority over his childhood chums -- though that hardly prevents him from leeching off their prestige whenever it suits him. And Bacall, contra the reviewer just below me, is NOT intelligent or cool-headed -- she is obviously an airhead who has just enough sense to latch onto Stack's millions, despite the fact that she's dimly aware, right from the get-go, of what a destructive jerk he is. More than any other reason, the movie doesn't get 5 stars from me because of Hudson and Bacall, neither of whom were ever really good actors (the scenes with just the two of them are sort of tough to get through). But that's more than made up for by Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone: the former gives the performance of his life here; the latter is deliciously sex-crazed and mordantly destructive. (Malone deservedly won an Oscar.) And, once again with Sirk, we're left agog by the lurid Technicolor (the early scene in a Palm Beach hotel, with its purple and pink wallpaper, looks stunning), and the Freudian symbolism . . . the best of which occurs near the end, when Malone, alone in her dead daddy's office, contemplatively strokes a paperweight oil derrick. And Stack, drunk and fuming about his inability to get Bacall pregnant, racing in his sports car amidst the forest of oil derricks -- to say nothing of the loaded gun he keeps under his pillow at night -- is a veritable poster boy for male anxiety.

Perhaps one of the most implausible set-ups I've ever seen in a film: An intelligent, attractive secretary played by Lauren Bacall becomes, inexplicably, drawn to an unctuous, rich playboy with absolutely no appeal, played by Robert Stack. The Stack character is so transparent in his moral banktruptcy that it is inconceivable that the Bacall character, with hardly any prodding, falls in love and marries him. Beyond this quick, desperate marriage which contradicts the apparent cool-headedness of Bacall, the film collapses under its stiff, laughable dialogue, so that the film is slow and plodding.

Sexuality spills onto the screen with the ultimate representation of lush, lurid Technicolor, in Douglas Sirk's masterly exaggerated melodrama, with an endless list of sexual themes. The movie is hardly the polished soap-opera it's made out to be, because under the inch-thick layer of gloss and pulp perversity of the whole affair, there's an intrigiung story of family rivalrey. The movie also boasts a great cast, with a great mix of stars, which include Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, and Dorthey Malone, with Stack and Malone literally stealing the show as troubled siblings. The movie reminded me of [another movie], which was really B-movie material molded into a masterpiece by a genius filmmaker, which could also be said for this movie...he certainly constructs an excellent drama. "Written on the Wind" is one of the most sexually-charged, wickedly witty, and most exquisitely elaborate movies ever to be put on film, soaked in glorious shades of plush coloring. It will leave an indelible mark, so if you find an urge to wallow in a good romance, step into this vat of sexuality, immorality, and irony. Majestic!