From Universal-International
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Starring
Rock Hudson
Lauren Bacall
Robert Stack
Dorothy Malone
Robert Keith
Grant Williams
Robert J. Wilke
Harry Shannon
Edward Platt
The story of a wealthy, dysfunctional Texas oil family bent on self-destruction rose to the top of director Douglas Sirk's prized Universal-International colorful melodramas. While it has been derided by some, certainly not this writer, the movie-going public, flocked to it. Like all the best melodramas, it is utterly watchable.
The film opens with its climactic scene and a gunshot and through the use of that old schtick-- wind blowing the pages of a calendar back in time-- we learn of a family crippled with an inability to do the right thing. We quickly learn that Marylee is in love with Mitch who is in love with Lucy who is in love with Kyle who is in love with the bottle. Add U-I's glorious colors to the mix and the lush theme song to heighten the emotional moments and it all adds up to pure Sirk.
Hudson plays Mitch, a geologist for the Hadley Oil Company, and best friend of Kyle Hadley (Stack) since first grade. To the Hadley paterfamilias (Keith), Mitch is the man he wishes his son Kyle could be. It would seem Mitch does everything right and Kyle does everything wrong. Truth be told, Kyle is so jealous of Mitch that he hides in the bottle.
Mitch has his share of problems with Kyle's sister Marylee (Malone) as well. She is so aggressively in love with him that when she can't get him to respond, she sleeps with every man who crosses her path.
Mitch discovers Lucy (Bacall) working in a Hadley office and immediately falls for her. He takes her to meet Kyle who falls for her as well. Since Kyle has bravado and showy wealth on his side, he charms Lucy and against her better judgment, she marries him within a day of their meeting. The audience is clear that she mistakes pity for love.
After marriage to the understanding Lucy, Kyle goes on the wagon, shapes up and for a year is the best he's ever been. One day he is told by the family doctor that he might have a problem fathering a child which sends Kyle spiraling downward. But his rage and self-hatred knows no boundaries when Lucy tells him she is pregnant. Then Marylee torments him with the notion that Mitch is really the father of the child.
We know there's no truth to it (although Mitch does still love Lucy) but both Kyle and Marylee are empty shells of people who are consumed with jealousy and bent on self-destruction. How does Kyle react to the pregnancy news and the lie his sister tells him? He slaps both women and heads out to the local watering hole to get more tanked and to get the proprietor's gun which is unsuccessful.
Jumping into his yellow sportscar Kyle heads home and roars up the circular driveway, a repeat of the film's opening scene. He tears into the house, leaving the front door wide open as leaves come pouring into the grand entry hall. He runs into the library, searching for his father's gun, as Mitch and Marylee run downstairs and into the room. As Kyle threatens to shoot Mitch, brother and sister struggle with the gun which goes off, leading to Kyle's death.
A vindictive Marylee threatens to tell the authorities that Mitch shot Kyle but in a dramatic court scene admits the truth. Mitch and Lucy are now free to have their romance.
Bravo to Sirk for his stylish, frothy melodrama, rich in subtext, never subtle and with a poke at satire. (I suspect Written on the Wind is the great-grandfather of TV's Dallas, although the latter is more lurid and pure soap opera.) His films in the 1950's, all at U-I, had a common theme... one character suffers or dies so that another can prosper. His other cherished films from this period include All I Desire, Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life.
For the most part, Hudson was Sirk's go-to actor for a number of these films and also others not in the Written on the Wind genre. They worked together eight times. It is to Hudson's and Bacall's credit that they were okay with their two costars, Malone and Stack, having the juiciest roles. It's the movie version of Will and Grace where everyone knows Jack and Karen have the best parts. Stack, who was loaned to Universal from 20th Century Fox, said that with Universal being Hudson's home studio and Hudson being the biggest star on the lot, Hudson could have made hay with Stack's part but he left it alone to allow Stack to shine.
Hudson is fine as Mitch with his amenable, good-guy persona being exactly what is required. This year, 1956, was certainly his best career-wise. He has just finished making another film about a rich Texas oil family called Giant.
Bacall said she accepted the assignment because she wanted to work with Hudson. She also said that Bogart suggested that she take the assignment and afterwards told her not to do another film like it if she wanted her career to go forward. Hmmm. The truth is, while I have always enjoyed Bacall in her films, including this one, I thought she was miscast. Lucy was not well-written. I can think of a half dozen actresses who would have been better. She only gave the film one sentence in her autobiography and said that she had been giving more attention to learning her lines for an upcoming live television performance of Blithe Spirit with Noel Coward and Claudette Colbert.
Both Stack and Malone were nominated for supporting Oscars and they well should have been. Neither was ever better. One of Oscar's great injustices (and we know that I think there are many) is that Stack didn't win. He never played such a loser so well. In fact, he IS the film... he is clearly the central character... all action has him at the center. I loved his facial expressions and how he looked so intently into others' faces.
He seemed to be winning all the other awards for playing Kyle Hadley and everyone assumed the Oscars would follow suit. After Anthony Quinn won for a 12-minute role in Lust for Life, Stack was shocked, saying late in life that he never really recovered from the snub. His belief is that Fox didn't stand behind his nomination because it came for a role at a rival studio... pretty stupid on Fox's part if you ask me.
Malone, however, did win her Oscar for a sharply-etched turn as a slut and a vengeful and thoughtless one at that. She had spent her career as a brunette, often with glasses to promote a studious, good-girl look. She bleached her hair blonde to play Marylee and life was never the same for her. Her plays for Mitch are so pathetic and sad, her need to degrade everyone around her to make herself feel better is so obvious and her sexuality is insatiable.
As good as her overall work is here, I have always thought it was one scene that cinched her win. She moves about her spacious bedroom, undulating to loud, throbbing music, grabbing a drink and a cigarette as she seductively settles into a slinky red nightgown. Let's call it unforgettable.
It would be wrong to ignore cinematographer Russell Metty's gorgeous photography. He worked with Sirk on a number of his films, insinuating particular colors into certain scenes to lend an air of authenticity and mood. Metty is certainly one of the chief contributors of the fame Universal-International acquired for its stunning Technicolor photography in scores of films.
It was a good shoot for most everyone, a happy set, a family feeling. Hudson's first film was Fighter Squadron (1948) which starred Stack. Although they had no scenes together, in 1946 Bacall and Malone were in The Big Sleep. Immediately after finishing Written on the Wind, Sirk, Stack, Malone and Hudson made The Tarnished Angels (1957). In 1958, Stack and Bacall costarred in The Gift of Love. In 1960 Malone made The Last Voyage with Stack and the following year she did The Last Sunset with Hudson.
It's been said that Lucy Hadley is loosely based on Broadway star Libby Holman and that the film is a nod to the death of her 20-year old husband, tobacco heir-playboy, Zachary Reynolds, who was mysteriously murdered shortly after hearing his wife was pregnant. I suspect loosely is the operative word.
TV Guide described the film as the ultimate in lush melodrama and cooed that it was Sirk's finest directorial effort. It is aided by the title tune, written by Victor Young and Sammy Cahn, played throughout and sung over the opening credits by the Four Aces.
Check out the trailer:
Next posting:
Robert Stack
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