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Truly Dreadful Film

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I never really liked the genre melodrama and this "written on the wind" was no exception. Almost everything in this film seemed to me forced and exaggerated. I did not create any empathy with any of the four main characters. The first half of the film is extremely boring and unconvincing, the second half improves a little by offering some reasonable moments. The performances of Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall (this strangely) are quite weak. Robert Stack is a little better and Dorothy Malone is the only one who is on a good level. I also found the end of the film very pathetic.

Would the Lauren Bacall character actually marry the Robert Stack character--on day one of their acquaintance? Of course not. Would the Rock Hudson character--year after year--put up with "best friend" Robert Stack's behavior? Is anyone that saintly? Of course not. Given the fact that certain females are "tramps," could any female be as trampy as the Dorothy Malone character? Of course not. Is anything about this movie believable or even interesting? Not much. In fact it's ugly from beginning to end and I'm sure the whole cast was embarrassed by having to play characters who couldn't possibly have existed. Lauren Bacall must have walked off the set every day, poured herself a stiff drink and said "I can't believe I'm doing this!" And if this was Robert Stack's "finest performance," that's unfortunate because he probably had some talent. The same year this was released, Rock Hudson did a beautiful acting job in Giant; in this one he just looks puzzled. What an ugly movie. I don't need to see this one again.

Probably the most hyperactive great movie ever made. Lauren Bacall marries into a wealthy oil family and soon regrets it. Her husband (Robert Stack) is a drunken bully and her sister-in-law (Dorothy Malone) is a nymphomaniac. She's mistreated by both of them. Things go from unpleasant to ridiculous when Stack's best buddy Rock Hudson starts to show some affection for Bacall. Douglas Sirk's resume is littered with high gloss soap operas, most of them absurd, but this one takes the prize. It's fever-pitched, very well acted (particuarly by Stack & Malone) and never dull. Robert Keith is the family patriarch and Grant Williams plays somebody named Biff. Produced by none other than Albert Zugsmith, the undisputed king of lurid 50s epics!

Of all of Douglas Sirk's sly and subversive melodramas, Written on the Wind may very well be the one that takes itself the most seriously. This is not to say that Sirk's wicked undertones are not present as they are; rather by this time (1956), he had perfected his ability to balance the false and lavish exterior with the sad, repugnant interior of the characters and the lives they inhabit.What is unique to this film is how intense and emotional the story becomes rather than simple-minded fodder for soap fans. This is due in part to the very strong performances, particularly Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone as Kyle and Marylee Hadley, the filthy-rich but morally empty children of an oil tycoon who traipse about looking for thrills and challenges. Kyle finds one in straight-laced secretary Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall), whom he eventually marries. Marylee has been attracted to Kyle's best friend Mitch Wayne (the incomparable Rock Hudson) all her life but cannot get past his wall of incredulity. In short, none of these characters are truly happy or satisfied with their situations, even after attempts to correct them. This may be Sirk's most devastating critique of all: everyone, despite their varied backgrounds, remain unfulfilled and unwilling to settle for anything but what they feel is ultimate satisfaction.If nothing else, this film is gorgeous to look at. Russell Metty, Sirk's longtime cinematographer, photographs Hollywood sets better than anyone. Perhaps its the color palate or Sirk's mise en scene; whatever it is it is used brilliantly to reflect the characters (and 1950s America's) vapid soullessness. This, combined with over the top acting and scenarios, would seem to present itself as sheer stupidity and disregarded melodrama. Of course, this being Douglas Sirk, one must attempt to look closer for the signs of that most modern of ideas: that people are strange and life is the most ironic of situations.