Rating: 
Summary: We miss you, Melodrama Master!
Review: "Written on the wind" goes on enjoying as Douglas Sirk's masterpiece (a very close race with "Imitation of life), and, if Sirk is a melodrama master, this film is one of the best soap operas ever. The pulpy stories, the trashy morality, the pop aesthethic and the luxurious color were the only set to make one of the most bizarre and satiric views of America's full decadence. Robert Stack is superb as the owner of an inmense fortune, by his father's Texas petroleum. But his impotence (a simulation to homosexuality), his alcoholism and jealousy destroy himself. Dorothy Malone is perfect in a special favorite performance by everyone who loves camp, as the nympho Stack's sister. Most impressive sequences: The title credits (kitsch!) and Malone's frenzied dance.
Rating:
Summary: An exquisite DVD of a deliciously trashy classic
Review: ... The film was shot in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio (basically, a standard television shape) and was intended to be screened at either 1.66:1 or 1.85:1. Criterion have used excellent judgment by cropping it to a midway point of 1.77:1. Often, films presented un-cropped, or "open-matte", which is the correct term, have carefully balanced framing thrown askew when there is far too much headroom on the top of the frame, losing a particular focus. Sirk, being such an overtly visual director, obviously needs his images preserved as intended. And what a way to preserve them! The transfer is simply extraordinary - and I'm far from alone in my thinking of this! The print is totally pristine; colours and sharpness are breathtaking, without any digital problems. The sound is rich and full, with surprisingly good fidelity and no crackles or hiss. Top marks for Criterion. The trailers are fun but spoiler-filled to an extent, but the piece-de-resistance is the incredible Melodrama Archive, which goes through all of his films, peppered with literally hundreds of stills, as well as synopsis and occasionally interview bites for each of his films. I have only seen this bettered on The Red Shoes, where actual film clips were available to view. The liner notes by Laura Mulvey are intelligent and thought-provoking, and certainly worth mentioning on the package's exterior. The film is truly trash as high art, as the family of an oil tycoon come crashing down as lust, alcohol and other pleasures are taken way overboard. I'm sure others can explain it's lasting appeal much better than I can - indeed, Roger Ebert picked it as one of the films on his All-Time Greats list. An astronomical recommendation for this title - it's perfection in every way. Buying the slightly more extensive special edition of All That Heaven Allows means you have a double bill of films to die for and a fantastic crash course in Sirk and his career.
Rating:
Summary: "Second Bananas" Take Top Acting Honors
Review: Although stars Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall appeared as the "top dogs" in this soap opera, it is the work of Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone that really elevates this film. It is almost impossible to believe that Stack, the same actor who would later have success as the "stiff as starch" Elliott Ness of "The Untouchables" is so volatile here as Kyle Hadley. Stack's acting is truly first-rate. Malone's tramp Marylee Hadley puts past and future vixens to shame. "Dallas" and "Dynasty" are walks in the park compared to "Written."
Rating: 
Summary: "F" for cropping Sirk's film. There ought to be a law!
Review: As a company well known and respected for high quality laserdiscs and DVDs, Criterion should be taken to court for deceiving and cheating its customers. In its boshure, Criterion claims each of its films "is presented uncut, in its original aspect ration, as the maker intended it to be seen." Some months ago, I sent an e-mail to Criterion complaining that YOJIMBO's original 2.35 ratio is closer to 2.15 on a standard television and 2.2 on a projector TV. One could not even see the complete names in the opening credits on the screen. Criterion never deigned to respond. Now, with Sirk's WRITTEN ON THE WIND and ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Criterion has done an ever greater disservice to serious viewers. Putting the new DVD of WRITTEN ON THE WIND in the DVD player and the video version of the same film in the VCR, I played both, switching between the DVD and the video versions. The result was just what I had expected: the so-called "enhanced for 16x9 televisions" DVD had the top and bottom of the images cropped. Recently we've had to cope with widescreen films cropped to so-called "full frame" or "modified to fit your TV"; now the term "enhanced for 16x9 televisions" means cropped to fit that size TV. Criterion knows that its customers are serious cineastes who want films in their original format. Why dishonor Sirk by cropping his films to 1.77? Other companies have been equally deceptive (if not devious)--they crop 2.35 to 1.77 and call it "original theatrical format" and "16x9 widescreen." Perhaps some of us should start a class action suit to stop these practices. Without the unnecessary cropping, WRITTEN ON THE WIND would rate an A+ for the digital transfer. The bright technicolor is stunning, and unlike the video, one can actually see that Mitch Wayne's yellow pencil is suddenly red when he talks with Papa Jasper Hadley. In conclusion--buyers beware! "Cinemascope digital transfer, enhanced for 16x9 televisions" can mean whatever the video producer wants it to mean: either the sides cropped from a true 2.35 cinemascope film, or the top and bottom cropped from a 1.33 academy format film.
Rating: 
Summary: Searching for potency amidst the oil derricks.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant film making
Review: Douglas Sirk, the director of Written On the Wind, was the master of melodrama (Imitation of Life, Magnificent Obsession) and this may well be his masterpiece. Based on a novel by Robert Wilder, which in turn was based on the sensational marriage of the R.J. Reynolds heir and torch singer Libby Holman, and his subsequent murder, the picture is set in a small Texas town dominated by the Hadleys who own the oil thereabouts. This incredibly disfunctional family consists of the greiving widower father, his alcoholic son and nymphomaniacal daughter, a more or less adopted good guy whose father gave him over to the Hadley's so he would have a better start in life, and the new bride of Hadley's son, a clever advertising woman from New York. The resulting stew of misunderstandings, illicit lust, impotence, misplaced desire, murder and generational conflict is played out in the most gorgeous, theatrical technicolor ever seen. I've always thought that Written on the Wind was the first of a new category that could be called "film noir et coleur". The lighting, color and cinematography create an atmosphere that makes the lurid melodrama not only work, but assume the stature of classic tragedy. Hudson and Bacall are very good, but Stack and Malone are breathtaking in their audacity and unmitigated glee in bringing these over-the-top characters to life. Sample from one of the unforgettable scenes between the brother and sister: Brother: "Wasn't that Lucy and Mitch? Where were they going"? Sister: "I don't know. Where would you take your best friend's wife"? The movie has something to say about family relationships, American futility, the need to escape, and the artificiality of our culture. Luckily, it makes its point in a unique, campy, overblown way that is simultaneously comforting and unnerving. You can laugh with this movie, but you can't laugh AT it. I'm eagerly awaiting the Criterion DVD!
Rating: 
Summary: TRASHY POTBOILER.....
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Melodramatic portrait of masculinity in 1950s America
Review: It might just be because melodrama is out of fashion now, but I wonder why this film was being made in 1956. Wasn't the world reeling to the sounds of Bill Haley and Elvis by then? Maybe there was a section of society that was untouched by Rock 'N' Roll, and if so it's recorded here. This film tells us about the times in which it was made. It tells us of society's attitudes to lechery, alcoholism, cuckoldry, fatherhood, infertility, and female promiscuity. The films four stars are all powerful in their roles, but Lauren Bacall is a little too strong for the part of an abused wife. I never believed that she would put up with her husband's behaviour, even if he were a millionaire. Robert Stack and Rock Hudson show what fine leading men they were, each in their own way. I am glad that we didn't know about Hudson's sexuality at the time, because the thrust of the film seems to me to be about contrasting images of masculinity. An actor's sexuality is not relevant to this, despite the knowing sniggers this might engender today. It's all beautifully photographed, and the strong colour is complemented by the costume design. Sirk's composition is admirable, exemplified by his use of a beautiful spiral staircase to represent both the affluence and vulnerability of the family simultaneously. By no means a masterpiece, it's well worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: True Melodrama
Review: Its all true in this Universal film that Sirk raises to a loftier level. Hudson, Stack and Maloney also teamed up in the drama " The Tarnished Angels" made at about the same time In "Written on the Wind" we see character actors of the period...Robert Keith, Brian,s father, Edward Platt and Robert Wilke( bartender) The title song was also a big hit at the time.Stack would soon turn to Televison and become Eliot Ness.( Untouchables)
Rating:
Summary: Hello! MeloDrama!
Review: 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.
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