Written on the Wind
Studio: The Criterion Collection
Apr 07, 2022 Web Exclusive
Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall) is a young woman with a good head on her shoulders, working her way up the secretary ladder in the Hadley Oil Company’s New York offices. One day she’s paid a surprise visit by the charming Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), the company’s top geologist, who whisks her away to a fancy restaurant under the guise of a business meeting. Once there, she realizes she was brought along to meet his friend, Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack), the infamous, ne’er-do-well son of the oil company’s founder—known famously throughout the nation’s tabloids as an alcoholic and playboy. She’s able to resist his money-backed advances for a while, but eventually gives in when he promises she’s different from all of his other conquests—and that he’ll give up the drinking and the womanizing to be with her. They marry.
Back in Hadleyville, the Texas town sprung up around his family’s oil fortune, the situation rapidly deteriorates. Marylee Hadley (Dorothy Malone), Kyle’s little sister, pines for the sensible Mitch’s attention, but Mitch can only see his old childhood friend like a sister. (That, and he’s quietly in love with his best friend’s new wife.) After a year of sobriety, Kyle falls off the wagon when he learns he may not be able to produce children; this gives Marylee a chance to strike out at both her brother and Mitch, sowing a violent jealously between the two.
Written on the Wind was a commercial and critical smash for Universal-International in 1956, breaking single-day box office records and earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Dorothy Malone. Robert Stack probably should have won for his twisted, damaged rich boy, and director Douglas Sirk would have at least gotten a nod were this from a more respectable genre than melodrama. It’s a lush piece of cinema, with Sirk hammering home every emotional beat with his on-the-nose use of symbolic colors and score. Yes, it’s soapy—it seems like the movie’s love triangle, nymphomania, and paternity drama could be served by a visit to Maury—but Sirk’s a master of subtext, able to turn a borderline trashy plot into something worthy of being broken down by academics for decades. Written on the Wind may also contain Sirk’s most famous visual euphemism—the big, honking oil derrick dick that sits on the Hadley patriarch’s desk—and these sort of not-entirely-subtle winks are one of the things that keep the director’s fans returning to his films time after time.
Criterion’s new Blu-ray is a welcome upgrade to their (now quite old) DVD release; beyond the higher resolution, the image is brighter and more natural in the color department. (A new 2K restoration was completed.) Included is a new, on-camera interview with historian Patricia White, who breaks down some of the unspoken symbolism that was reused throughout melodramas of the era, and a documentary about Sirk’s working habits that includes vintage interviews with all three stars of this film. If you’re a Sirk fan, chances are you’ve already ordered this—but if you’re new to his work, we would favor starting with All that Heaven Allows (also out in a lovely edition from Criterion) and then jumping over to this one.
(http://www.criterion.com/films/636-written-on-the-wind)
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