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Written On The Wind [1956]
![Written On The Wind [1956]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/513EknP5G-L._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £2.45 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Douglas Sirk puts the opera back into soap opera in this exquisitely baroque melodrama, the epitome of Technicolor gloss. Rock Hudson (as wonderfully wooden as ever) and Lauren Bacall play stalwart examples of altruism, clean living, and good old American ambition, but Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone steal the film as white trash millionaire siblings stewing in self-pity. The plot reads like an episode of Dallas: Texas oil-baron playboy Stack steals good girl Bacall from best friend Hudson while Stack's sister Malone puts her slinky moves on Hudson, the strapping poor boy made good. Toss in impotence, jealousy, alcoholic binges, emotional blackmail, and backstabbing nastiness, mix vigorously with high style and expressionist flourishes, and you've got the most potent melodrama cocktail of the 1950s. Stack twists his arch delivery into the practiced bravado of a boozing womanizer nursing an inferiority complex while Malone sashays and flirts her way through an Oscar-winning performance as a slutty, sassy good-time girl. It's so over the top that it might seem kitschy at first glance, but former theater director Sirk subtly shades his vision in the shadows of film noir and uses the portentous angles and gaudy color to create a vivid, vivacious world of glossy surfaces and social masks cracking under the pressure of responsibility and the pain of lost love. --Sean Axmaker
Beauty of the frames... and strength of the melodrama...
Review date: 2008-11-17 Rating: 6 out of 10
There are roughly two kinds of films: story centred and image centred. Douglas Sirk is one of the greatest directors in matter of image making: his frames are colourful, the action is balanced in the frame both vertically and horizontally, surfaces are not flatly lit... this film is one of the best examples of his style.
But Douglas Sirk is also considered as a good storyteller and one of the best melodrama makers... this film is one of the best examples of his skilful melodrama making.
In my opinion this film is Sirk's best film.
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Reviews
Fantastic
Review date: 2008-08-20 Rating: 10 out of 10
A wonderful print of a totally delicious and over the top melodrama. It works perfectly. The use of colour has seldom been bettered, the performances ( even from Rock Hudson) are ideal and the lyrical and highly theatrical pre-credit sequence is an absolute masterpiece. See it in a double bill with All That Heaven Allows and you will remember how good it once was to go to the movies.Full marks to all concerned in the production and marketing of this "gold standard" DVD.
Self destructive oil rich family in highly charged melodrama
Review date: 2007-07-06 Rating: 8 out of 10
Oil rich siblings Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) and his sister Marylee (Dorothy Malone) lead pointless self indulgent lives, Kyle womanising and drinking to excess and Marylee lusting for Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson). Wayne was brought up with the Hadley family and can only regard Marylee as a sister, whilst feeling compelled to protect Kyle from his excesses.
However when Mitch falls in love with Lucy (Lauren Bacall) but she marries Kyle an overcharged drama of mutual self destruction erupts.
Rock Hudson performs well in the best role as the strong supportive quasi brother to the siblings, and Stack and Bacall make the best of their less sympathetic characters. Malone gives a strong performance of a desperate woman sublimating her frustrated love by finding solace behaving as a tramp and keeping the family feuding on the boil.
Director Douglas Sirk dissects a segment of American society with his usual intensity, providing an engrossing but much larger than life melodrama.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Dorothy Malone
Rock Hudson
Lauren Bacall
Robert Keith
Robert Stack
Creators:
Rock Hudson (Primary Contributor)
Lauren Bacall (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
EAN: 5050582199369
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2005-02-21
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 95 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1956-12-28
Language: English (Original Language)