CRITERION COLL: WRITTEN ON THE WIND / (WS SUB) - CRITERION COLL: WRITTEN ON THE WIND / (WS SUB)

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Product Description

Bathed in lurid Technicolor, melodrama maestro Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind is the stylishly debauched tale of a Texas oil magnate brought down by the excesses of his spoiled offspring. Features an all-star quartet that includes Robert Stack as a pistol-packin' alcoholic playboy; Lauren Bacall as his long-suffering wife; Rock Hudson as his earthy best friend; and Dorothy Malone (who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar© for her performance) as his nymphomaniac sister.

• Actors: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Robert Keith
• Director: Douglas Sirk
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• ISBN: 1559409134
• Language (Original Language): English
• Language (Subtitled): English
• Region Code: 1
• Release Date: 2001-06-19
• Running Time: 99 minutes
• Theatrical Release Date: 1956-12

Customer Reviews

Reviewed on 2007-09-13 A Zanily Overwrought Camp Delight!! "Down there, I'm a guy with too many chips -- throw 'em up in the air and a few land on my shoulders," says tortured playboy Robert Stack, piloting classy secretary Lauren Bacall on a joyride in his private plane. This zanily overwrought classic -- about the mysterious death of the heir to an American dynasty -- had lawyers for the tabacco-rich Reynolds family working overtime. But instead of trying to stop the moviemakers (it's a heavily veiled account of the Reynoldses' son marrying torch singer Libby Holman and then meeting a sudden demise), the clan ought to have sued for a better script: No matter what happened in real life, it can't possibly have been this devinely silly. "Are you looking for laughs or are you soul-searching?" asks Rock Hudson, Stack's devoted childhood pal, of nice girl Bacall. Actually, as audiences of the mid-'50s already knew, she's out to demonstrate again that she knows how to marry a millionaire. When she and Stack return to the family mansion from their honeymoon, Bacall's alarmed to find a gun stashed under Stack's pillow, perhaps because it's not the only Freudian symbol on hand: they're living in the shadow of the most insistently phallic oil wells in movie history. Hudson's so hot for Bacall that a character quips that Hudson's, er, "torch is burning." Sizzling out of control, too, is Stack's floozy sister, Dorothy Malone, who ogles Hudson like the slab of prime rib he is, and reveals there's bad blood between her and her brother. "I hate him so," she drawls, "for taking you away from me. I'm desperate for you ... marriage or no marriage." Malone sneaks off from a society blowout in the newlyweds' honor to ask Hudson, "I've changed since we last swam in the raw, haven't I?" When he mutters , "I was an idiot boy then," Malone storms back to the party and achieves Bad Movie immortality by dancing the maddest, most furious mambo EVER. The madness accelerates when Malone picks up gas station attendant Grant Williams, who tells her tycoon father, Robert Keith, "Your daughter's a tramp, mister." Turned on by all the action, Malone mambos again -- in fron of a framed portrait of Hudson -- as her father drops dead. Then, Malone goads Stack, who's taken to booze when he finds he may not be able to father a child with Bacall, that he'd better keep an eye on Bacall and Hudson. When Stack calls her "a filthy liar," Malone snaps, "I'm filthy -- period!" It all ends, as of course it must, with gunplay, a courtroom trial, and Malone -- head of the family at last -- crumpled at her father's massive desk fondling a miniature oil derrick. The following year, Malone stood onstage at the Oscar ceremonies similarly fondling her Best Supporting Actress award. Meticulously filmed, utterly sublime, here's the GIANT of Bad Movies So Bad They're Good!

Reviewed on 2007-06-27 Written on the Wind Sirk's stirring melodrama about the meltdown of an oil-baron family is a high-strung potboiler mixing rage, impotence, money, sex, anxiety, and murder in one flaming concoction. Visually sumptuous and redolent with garish colors to match the Hadleys' bursting emotions, "Wind" boasts the fantastic talents of Hudson and Bacall as straight-arrow types in a hellish situation. The chiseled Stack is a mess of masculine anguish as hard-drinking Kyle, and Robert Keith is excellent as the Hadley patriarch, but Oscar winner Dorothy Malone takes the prize for her outlandishly catty, slutty turn as Marylee. "Wind" may not be subtle, but it's a whirlwind of (melo)dramatic delights.

Reviewed on 2007-06-01 Trashy "Classic" of American Cinema is Guilty Pleasure If you enjoyed the television shows Dallas and Dynasty, this movie is right up your alley. Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone are poisonous, dysfunctional siblings, in opulent surroundings, who are both spiraling to doom... and aren't above dragging innocent people with them for a ride. When lives collide...When love is out of reach... When fate deals a bad hand... When leaves blow into your front hallway... When you're driving with the top down and your hairdo doesn't muss... When you marry someone on the first date... When your sister does an embarrassing cha-cha in her nightgown... When you loathe yourself so much that you throw a drink in the mirror... The answers to these puzzles are written in Hollywood circa 1956. Everything I Didn't Really Need to Know I Learned From "Written on the Wind": 1. Robert Stack's mumbling is fun to decipher. Did he just say "Let's have a drink", or "My chassis stinks"? Did he say "I'm in love with you" or "I want elephant food"? I can forgive his fierce, intense glaring (just as scary as Dennis Hopper's was in "Blue Velvet"), which makes me wonder: is this the same calm guy who'd be hosting "Unsolved Mysteries" on TV? 2. The score seems to swell powerfully at times so loudly that I thought my television set and all my windows would shatter. Lauren Bacall gazes out a window wistfully and WHOOOSH, the orchestra plays a deafening crescendo. Rock Hudson runs out of milk for his coffee and HHWWWAAA, strings and brass surge. 3. Main characters don't need to be likeable at all. Robert Stack is a self destructive, self pitying boozehound with no good qualities. Dorothy Malone is a cartoon tramp who seems to be attending night school at the Joan Crawford Academy of Manliness. (And yet Stack was nominated for an Oscar, and Malone actually got one!) Lauren Bacall is deadly dull as the new bride trying to understand her pathetic hubby. Rock Hudson is twice as boring as Bacall. I kept hoping another character would take his pulse to make sure he was alive. "Are you in there, fella?" 4. Weird camera angles and billowing curtains are a nice touch in any mansion. 5. The housekeeper from "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" (Maidie Norman) makes a decent witness at a murder trial. 6. Director Douglas Sirk enjoys mirrors. This film has been included on many "Best Movies" lists. It's good, but it's far from great. It's garish, trashy melodrama; a guilty pleasure. If this is your cup of tea, I also recommend "The Best of Everything", another dose of colorful suds. This one's about secretaries and the amazing lives they lead in the big city. See the magnificent 55 year old Joan Crawford ask her newbie, "Where's my coffee?" Fun, campy stuff.

Reviewed on 2007-04-08 Downward Spiral "Written on the Wind" is entertaining, although a bit dated over 50 years later. Dorothy Malone won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her over-the-top portrayal of Marylee Hadley. She is dressed in orange which matches her brightly colored convertible and dances a wild mambo in an orange chiffon nightgown as her daddy dives down the stairs & dies. Robert Stack's only Oscar nomination came for the film, although he'd watch Anthony Quinn take home the award for "Lust for Life." Truthfully, Stack seems stiff, although he felt he was really into the part. There seems to be no chemistry between Stack & Bacall; so one wonders why she married him. Bacall was not nominated for an Oscar until the 1996 comedy "The Mirror Has Two Faces," where she played Barbra Streisand's mother. As Lucy Moore Hadley, she seems like an emotional iceberg, difficult to read, although she certainly is faithful to her husband, even during his drunken downward spiral. Rock Hudson was nominated for an Oscar for "Giant" this same year. As Mitch Wayne, he's the perfect boy next door: sensitive, intelligent, responsible and places his friendship with Stack's Kyle Hadley as an important priority. The two fathers in the film also turn in nice work. Robert Keith whose first film was in 1924 and who was in "Guys & Dolls" plays the head of the Hadley household with the two spoiled children. His scene where he blames himself for not being able to save their mother is sad. Harry Shannon who was in the 1941 Orson Wells' classic "Citizen Kane" plays Hudson's father Hoak Wayne. He cleans his rifle and listens understandingly to his son's problems. The song was also nominated for an Oscar. The film is a rather trashy melodrama in a sedate 1950s manner. While it seems a bit campy today, it's still interesting to watch these actors work in what was not their best vehicle, except maybe Malone whose performance was shockingly over-played. I was surprised she was recognized for this. But alas, it was the 50s. Enjoy!

Reviewed on 2007-03-09 Written On the Wind Lived up to my expectations. Brought back memories of my early years, seeing wonderful movies, without all the modern violence and bad language.

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