Douglas Sirk directs this 1950s Hollywood melodrama. An alcoholic playboy marries a woman also loved by his best friend, while the alcoholic playboy's sister pursues the best friend. Complications and emotions run high throughout, as this extremely over the top film, its actors and its emotional cues scream at the audience like a horror movie scream queen. Written on the Wind has aged horribly. The acting is unconvincing, it's hopelessly overdone from start to finish and as a result, it never truly works. That isn't to say it's a bad film though. It's simply a fill of its time. Back in its day it would have been very striking. Douglas Sirk directs it well and mise-en-scene is used brilliantly throughout, while the ridiculously over-the-top nature of the film often becomes strangely charming. In the end, it does affect one on an emotional level, even if its methods are somewhat dubious. It is a film which firmly belongs back in its time, but it is an oddly enjoyable movie much of the time and like always seeing such extreme, melodramatic emotional story lines is strangely entertaining. 6/10

Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind is nothing short of a wonderful film that is also the most emotionally effective Sirk film I've seen since All That Heaven Allows (1955). I thought that by the look of the criterion collection DVD cover that is was going to tell a nice story about the marriage of both Rock Hudson's and Lauren Bacall's characters (which doesn't change my opinion on the movie one bit). But the movie tells a different story, the movie stars Rock Hudson as Mitch Wayne a man who happens to be lifelong best friends with an alcoholic playboy named Kyle Hadley (played by Robert Stack in an Oscar nominated performance) who is dating a woman named Lucy Moore (played by Lauren Bacall) who Kyle then gets married to and doesn't know that Lucy is secretly in love with Mitch, as well as Marylee Hadley (played by Dorothy Malone in an Oscar winning performance) who is Kyle's nymphomaniac sister who is sexually attracted to Mitch. While watching this movie I empathized with the Lauren Bacall character most because she suffered a lot in her marriage to the Robert Stack character who said to her in the beginning of the movie that "I drink too much". Even though I didn't read the novel I felt like I did because I understood the story and the emotions of the characters so well, Sirk really took the time while making this film and had a good time doing it, and Russell Metty's camera angles are shot in all the right places. The movie itself is just a life changing experience for me to watch, this is one of the 10 best films of 1956.

Presently, a shooting occurs at the Texas mansion owned by the oil-rich Hadley family. In a flashback, we witness what led up to the apparent tragedy… Over a year ago, handsome Hadley geologist Rock Hudson (as Mitch Wayne) meets attractive secretary Lauren Bacall (as Lucy Moore) in New York. He is interested in her, but she is taken by Mr. Hudson's childhood chum, the "Prince Charming" of the Hadley oil empire, Robert Stack (as Kyle Hadley). An alcoholic playboy, Mr. Stack settles down when he meets Ms. Bacall. But family problems and old demons eventually return...One problem is sexually-charged sister Dorothy Malone (as Marylee Hadley). She suffering from unrequited love for Hudson, who only has eyes for Bacall. She doesn't get the man she wants, but Ms. Malone has a active sex life as the town tramp. She moves from bar to bedroom with ease and will even take the guy who pumps her gas to a motel. Service station attendant Grant Williams gets the invite. Hadley patriarch Robert Keith (as Jasper Hadley) is furious. Stack and Malone, the doomed and tormented brother-sister duo, steal the show. They are an indictment of industrialized wealth..."Written on the Wind" won Malone the "Film Daily" and "Academy Award" honor as "Best Supporting Actress" of the year. Stack was nominated by both groups, but it turned out to be Anthony's year (Perkins for the former in "Friendly Persuasion" and Quinn for the latter in "Lust for Life"). Neither director Douglas Sirk nor cinematographer Russell Metty received noms, although both are award-worthy. Moving his players artfully in and around the Hadley mansion, Mr. Sirk is in peak form. And, you can't be bored in a courtroom scene when Malone's hat repeatedly slices the movie screen.********* Written on the Wind (12/12/56) Douglas Sirk ~ Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone

Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) is an obnoxious, spoiled and selfish playboy. He and his assistant, Mitch (Rock Hudson) fall for the same woman (Lauren Bacall) but Kyle somehow wins her with his charming personality. I say 'somehow' because after this, you see very little of his charm--mostly the actions of a boorish, sulking jerk. He immediately takes his wife for granted and you feel for the lady. As for Mitch, he can't stay--as he is carrying a torch for this now married woman. And then there's Marylee (Dorothy Malone), Kyle's rather obnoxious sister. She's in love with Mitch but Mitch tells her he's not interested. When Mitch doesn't reciprocate, she decides to destroy herself and everyone around her. And then, there's Kyles 'man problem'*...what's to become of that? Does this all sound like a bit of fluff--like just another soap opera? Well, yes, but it is a very glossy and pretty soaper--thanks to director Douglas Sirk, who made a name for himself by making what was essentially high-quality trash. Films like "Magnificent Obsession**", "All That Heaven Allows" and "Imitation of Life**" were all about rich, bored and screwed up pretty folks. In many ways, these films are a lot like forerunners of shows like "Dallas" and "Dynasty". In other words, they appeal to a certain niche--and if you like this sort of thing, Sirk was great in creating them. He did, however, make MANY films that did not fit this mold--though today he is most known for the soaps. As for me, I am not a huge fans of soaps. This doesn't mean they are bad--just not the sort of genre that usually appeals to me. Additionally, there wasn't any subtlety about this film (except in what I mention below*)--it was loud, crass and bigger than life (particularly in regard to Malone's character). I also think it plays better if you see it as a comedy and not a drama--especially since Malone's and Stack's characters are so ridiculous and over-done! But, in an odd way, it IS entertaining...I will give it that!Oddly, despite all this, Sirk and his melodramas have been adored by the French New Wave writers and directors--and perhaps that is why the film has been released as part of the much-heralded Criterion Collection. For me, I just cannot see what they see in this--it's just a soaper...and a rather trashy one at that for its time. *Because it was the 1950s, the script really didn't know what to do with Kyle. Sirk envisioned the man as a closeted homosexual. However, they couldn't put that in American films at that time due to the Production Code, so they talked about him having some 'problem' that prevented the couple from having kids. Talk about cryptic and silly! The viewers might have thought he was impotent or had poor sperm motility or was chronically constipated or had major Freudian issues or goodness knows what!! Having him being clearly gay would have improved the film tremendously and made sense of some of the plot.**These were remakes and especially in the case of "Imitation of Life", the original was much better. However, I am a guy who almost never likes remakes.