Ebert's GREAT MOVIES, Part 13: "Written on the Wind"

That was a fun film to watch!

The technicolorest Technicolor, the campiest camp, great spoiled and tormented characters, soap-opera as true as life can be (aren't all hopes finally doomed? Isn't tragedy always a bit farsical?), and great acting by great actors.

The best scene: Dorothy Malone's upstairs rumba dance, while the world is crumbling.

After seeing this film I said to myself: "I love Douglas Sirk's films". So I went on to see Battle Hymn. Alas, I have only seen two Douglas Sirk's films.

Written on the Wind
1956, heh?
I am afraid I missed it.

Ooops! Forgot the poll. (It's been over two weeks since "The Bicycle Thief" which obviously wasn't seen by many A2Kers -- a good calling to make sure one sees the film).

Malone delivered a clever parody of the character she was playing, all slinky and oversexed. It was deliciously tacky and the centerpiece performance of the film.

Hi, Mr. Wizard. I saw the film, but I remember thinking it was silly. Hey, I was supposed to think it was silly, according to Ebert.

I was too young to be captivated by the low key message.

I enjoy emotion in films because the writer or the director had to develop the character enough to know how they would react to a person or an event. Douglas Sirk's films from his 1950's period rarely shied away from emotion and "Written on the Wind" was no exception.

This type of script writing and film directing was prevalent in the 30's until around 1959 "Suddenly Last Summer" and 1960 with "Butterfield 8" plus a few more films after. "Summer" was a great Tennessee Williams play and Jos. Markiewicz directed Elizabeth Taylor to an Oscar nomination for her performance in this film. Elizabeth's character showed emotion that you rarely see in today's films. Sirk had success with Dorothy Malone in "Wind" and she won the "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar for her performance.

Even though Sirk was parodying this emotion, Hollywood had great success with producing films strong on character emotion and drew from writers like Tennessee Williams, Fannie Hurst & John O'Hara.

I am not really sure what motivated Sirk to parody these novels. These Fannie Hurst type stories were losing popularity and possibly Sirk wanted to put his own spin on these scripts to make them fresh. He had a vision but most of the reviewers did not wildly applaud. Sirk's "Imitation of Life" (1959) was his last film in America. The genre was disappearing and he faded from the Hollywood scene.

Forty years later and having lived through restrained character emotion brought on in the 1960's by European films and being cool, people view Sirks films with their character emotion with new interest.

We could be at a turning point here. Musical's are making a comeback, why not emotion?

Character emotion and cinematographical approach may differ. But, do you see, as I do, a strong thematic kinship between this film and many Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films?

Lightwizard<

Something tells me I have seen this film because I am a fan of every member of the cast. fbaezer's post re: Dorothy Malone's rumba seems familiar.

Meanwhile, I'll read Ebert's essay and sit with jeanbean in the peanut gallery.


couzz<

Don't you think Elizabeth Taylor's performance in 1968's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was a tour de force of emotion?

In 1956 I would have been 13 years old and my reaction would have been, "Oh puke!"

To do it justice, I'll need to track down a video or DVD and have another look. From what Ebert has written and from others on this thread, it sounds as if I would enjoy it this time around.

Diane, these characters have so much presence on the screen and it's definitely not a romantic movie. It's anti-romantic and the obviously fake backgrounds, the camera filters accentuating all the warm tones, shots like of the leaves blowing across the sidewalk, Hudson's sometimes obvious discomfort in the homosexual subtext -- it's all there. It's retro 50's at its best and even though it seems quite tame now, it was considered controversial at the time.

I'm afraid I have to join the folks in the peanut gallery. To the best of my recollection -- which, I admit, is a bit faulty sometimes -- I have never seen this film.

What did you people do in the Fifties? (Okay, I know some of you weren't alive, or like Diane, weren't old enough to be allowed to see a slut on the screen).

No, not Rock! (Well, actually....)

This has been on TCM several times this year and I believe it's going to make the rounds on Encore, et al in the next few months. I was surprised after "Far From Heaven" that it wasn't on every movie channel within a month. I enjoy this film immensily for all the reasons Ebert points out.

Oh, well, and next time I have anothern sub-titled film in mind. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

In the 50s I wasted my time at Saturday matinees, cheering for Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and their ilk. Pictures like "Written on the Wind" or "Not As A Stranger" (which I did see) and anything with Doris Day in it were considered "girl movies." No self-respecting teen-age guy would go to these.

i have the most wonderfully vivid pic of the youngDiane and theYoungBuckAndrew - 'puke', 'it's a girl move', 'puke'.

now that's what you call honest opinions! :smile:

I wouldn't exactly class this as a chick flick. I doesn't paint a good picture of women nor of men, for that manner. It explores all the pettiness and hidden agendas which seem to particularly plague the wealthy. You mean to tell me Merry avoided being dragged into one of these melodramas? What did he do, bribe them with a Ferrari? Your assignment, if you are willing to take it, is to read the Ebert essay and then go rent the film! Anyone who doesn't will be forced to watch reality TV for a month.

Lightwizard, At the time this movie was released, I was a member of the Fire Baptised, Snake Handling, Deep Water, Hard Shell, Holiness Baptist Church of America, no member of which ever attended the movies, did any form of ballroom dancing, ever used tobacco, ever played cards or ate pop corn. As a consequence, I missed this one. I also missed John Wayne in Genghis Kahn (Life is a curse).

But, that is all behind me, and tomorrow I'm going to rent "Written on the Wind" and catch up with the times.

Lightwizard<

Now, if Ebert brings up Pillow Talk, that is a movie I remember vividly.

Also, in the eighth grade, a group of us skipped last period class and went to the Clover movie theatre to see
the absolutely scandalous Susan Slade. We were so scared, we sat in the balcony under a cloak of anonymity.

The Clover theatre is now an independent cinema house. Its biggest money-maker in its some 20 years of independence was the current My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

That movie was "held over" three times. The theatre -- which survives on member contributions and ticket sales -- made enough money from Greek Wedding to install a new state of the art sound system.

The interior of the building was restored many years ago to its original decor. Every time I go to this theatre,
I remember the Susan Slade episode.

I know I have digressed here long enough, but I thought the story worth telling.

We have the local Edwards multiplex for strictly foreign and independent films and then the Lido Theater on the Balboa Peninsula which dates back to the Art Deco of the Twenties. They also made out with "Greek Wedding."

I would suggest that one reads the Ebert essay and comment on what he says about the film even if one hasn't seen it.

Reading the essay made me realize I have never seen this film even though I thought I had. So tomorrow I will track it down because of what Ebert says I need to see it. Sounds like a more modern scenario than a film of the 50s. Maybe I just read about in in one of my movie magazines. I love the whole cast but will probably vote for Lauren Bacall. But then again maybe not after I see the film. I was a big fan of Dorothy Malone too.

The picture you paint of Balboa and the Lido takes me home. LW did you live in Laguna when the old guy used to welcome everyone stuck in the Pacific Coast Highway before I-5 was built. Oh my goddess it took four hours just to get to Long Beach from San Diego. But I digress.

It's worse in Laguna than ever without The Greeter. I lived in Laguna from 1965 (fresh out of college) to 1978! I still have many friends there and am down there on business or socializing several times a month. It's still a beautiful area with it's private little coves and lot of art galleries, albeit with mostly decorator art.
Diane Nelson is a serious gallery in town -- I did her lighting.

The film is permeated with atmospheric shots -- I'd have to look up the cinematographer and all involved deliver very good performances. Sirk was always able to draw out the depth of an actor and their character and it shows here. The Four Tops rendition of the title song is very nostalgic.