Gideon24 Douglas Sirk, the King of 1950's melodrama, hit another bullseye with 1957's Written on the Wind, a soapy but extremely entertaining film that still works, despite some dated elements.The film stars Robert Stack as Kyle Hadley, a wealthy alcoholic playboy who instantly falls for a secretary at his father's company (Lauren Bacall), who has also caught the eye of Kyle's best friend Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), who is also the lifelong obsession of Kyle's trampy sister, MaryLee (Dorothy Malone).Based on a novel by Robert Wilder, George Zuckerman's screenplay makes all the moves expected from melodrama in the 1950's...we have best friends torn apart by a woman, a man who thinks he can buy a woman's affections and learning that all the money in the world is ineffective next to a wedding ring and that obsession can drive people to destroying people they care about.The primary quadrangle that makes up this story is constructed in a way that we know immediately there's no way things aren't going to get messy, but the slow reveal of how the destruction commences keeps us guessing and throws in a couple of curves we didn't see coming that during 1957, probably had some censors squirming, but probably attracted audience in droves as word of mouth spread.There are some really interesting casting choices made here...Robert Stack probably had the most significant role of his movie career as the self-destructive Kyle and he makes the most of it, forcing Rock Hudson to underplay his role in order to make Stack's performance viable. I have to admit though, that as I watched this film, I couldn't help but think of how different this film might have been if Hudson and Stack had switched roles. Kyle reminded me a lot of Hudson's character in Magnifcient Obsession and I definitely could have seen it, but Stack was surprisingly solid. Lauren Bacall's stylish work brought a richness to her character that really wasn't in the screenplay and Dorothy Malone's delicious scenery chewing in the film's showiest role won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress of 1957. Malone's role required her to invest in some things that would be laughed off movie screens today, but in '57 audiences ate it up and so did the Academy.Director Douglas Sirk proves once again that he understood the melodrama genre and the emotions that it is supposed to produce, giving the intended audience exactly what they wanted. If you like your soap against glamorous Ross Hunter-like-trappings, you will love this.

Armand more than a good film, it is a splendid puzzle. not only for cast or themes. but for the science to not be a melodrama like many others. a film who seduce different genre of public. and a high level of performance. sure, it is not out of recipes of genre. but it seems be different and that is the good part. in same measure, it use in wise manner the images,music and symbols and recreate the atmosphere of a lovely classic story. but the cast makes the difference. this fact is so clear. and not for acting itself but for the choice of director for one or other. so, the duty of each is to be himself. and the show is running.

gavin6942 Alcoholic playboy Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack) marries the woman (Lauren Bacall) secretly loved by his poor but hard-working best friend (Rock Hudson), who in turn is pursued by Kyle's nymphomaniac sister (Dorothy Malone).I love that the Criterion disc says it is presented in "lurid Technocolor". Not sure that is a compliment, but the film's palette is definitely brighter and more overwhelming than most films. And not in a bad way.I find it sad that director Douglas Sirk is largely forgotten and it took a German director, Rainer Fassbinder, to bring him back. There really needs to be a re-examining of his boundary-pushing films.

JasparLamarCrabb 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!