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

Fellows, you make me feel young!
A darn good thing for the day after my second son turned 18.

I saw "Written On The Wind" on public tv. It must have been the early 80s.
Our public tv would NEVER air a Doris Day movie. And certainly "Written On the Wind", a dark film in blaring colors, is no "Pillow Talk".

Lightwizard, I rented the film today and just finished watching it. What a terrific movie. The thing that made it so much fun to watch was having read Ebert's review before the viewing. Everything he said was true. This is one where I laughed at all the serious parts. Well, most of them anyway.
Thanks for a great one.

It's hard to imagine people that shallow, foolish and perverse but I guess they exist -- they definitely are funny but funny pathetic. It has a tone from the beginning to the end that makes one scream at the screen, stop doing that, you idiot.

As Ebert said, there were scenes that looked like the front cover of a 1930s detective story magazine, complete with lots of color on the faces. Any scene where there was emotion, it was raised to the melodramatic level, or higher. Dorothy Malone was priceless in the court room scene wearing that black dress and hat. She did the whole thing perfectly.

Somehow, I never thought much about her as an actress, but she was perfect for this role. Maybe she was the Kim Basinger of her day.

Basinger would have been a good choice for a remake but may be a little old to hold down the part (?). I'm not sure about a complete remake as "Far From Heaven" has come remarkably close already to updating those old melodramatic potboilers. I have to admit a connection to those films because they were over-the-top and at my age when I saw them, I didn't see all of Sirk's clever insertion of dialogue and body (bawdy?) language giving the film it's risque overtones. I think the courtroom scene is what put the Oscar in Malone's hands.

I saw "Written on the Wind" when it first played. Moviegoers in my town at that time said it was trashy, risque, immoral, over-acted, and -- loved every minute of it. Soap opera at its best, with the exception of the required box of Kleenex. (That came the next year with Peyton Place.) I had no inkling of Sirk's intentions until I read this thread and accordingly thank you Lightwizard for bringing it to my attention. It explains a lot of things. Anyway, the guys went ga ga over Malone's dance sequence and Rock's fans remained steadfastly loyal (he was nominated for Giant the same year) and you couldn't go to any restaurant that had a juke box without hearing the theme song two or three or four times.
I'm enjoying the comments of those who have seen this movie for the first time.

I suppose it's a guilty pleasure now to like these films but I can't remember if I was in the mindset when I saw it in a theater. In fact, I don't remember if I didn't see this on the small screen in the 60's or 70's! It plays well on TV and I did see it on my big screen this past year. Hudson was underrated as an actor in my opinion and he was given some good roles. They were the usual handsome male lead parts but in this particular film, I get very involved with his characteriztion of that role.

This movie (like all of Sirk) is a camp classic...ridiculous kitsch, NOT a great movie or even a very good one. But at least it's fun. The recent movie FAR FROM HEAVEN fell apart precisely because it took itself too seriously. The trick with a movie like WRITTEN ON THE WIND is to go over the top. FAR FROM HEAVEN was so Tasteful and Significant that it strangled on its own seriousness.

LW, I do agree that Hudson was vastly underrated as an actor. He always comes across so very natural and believacle. Maybe his life-style had something to do with the negative image.

Rock Hudson was underrated as an actor? Who's next for reconsideration and an upgrade--Tab Hunter?

No, let's leave Tab Hunter right where he is, or was.

Tab Hunter was the Lightwizard of actors, so you should hold him in higher esteem.

Ebert's Great Movies, Part 14: "McCabe & Mrs. Mille
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Mr. Wizard, I'm a teensy bit confused. Just read your link to Ebert's review of "McCabe and Mrs. Miller". Er, what are we discussing here? Well, whatever, I didn't see it but I was caught up with Ebert's idea that McCabe was a closet poet in a town that knew not poetry, while the only potential poet (Mrs. Miller) had long since ceased to care. What beautiful irony.

I put Warren Beatty on a par with Hunter and Hudson

Just a mistake -- I hit Post Reply instead of New Topic. It's now a New Topic.