Written on the Wind (1956)

Hollywood in the 1940s had great success in making what were referred to as women pictures, which were soapy romances and dramas that dealt with high class rich characters and their emotional conflicts.     Even the best of these films left one a bit bored and distanced from their story.   

For this reason, I was very much surprised as to how much I enjoyed Douglas Sirk’s ultimate soap opera, “Written on the Wind”.  This is a film that has since influenced all the popular TV soap operas from the 70s and 80s such as “Days of our Lives” and even “Dallas”.     This film however more resembles a filmed version of an illustrated novel then a 1940s drama.   

Made in bright expressive colors that Sirk uses in order to portray the emotions of his characters, this is the ultimate visual film.    The backgrounds are clearly fantastical and artificial which matches the sleazy subplots of the movie, dealing with not only love and jealousy but also nymphomania, alcoholism, suicide, murder, impotence and even hints at homosexuality and incest.    That is quite a load of issues and all of these taboo topics are welded into a story dealing with a rich upper class American Family from the conservative state of Texas.   

The actors speak lines that seem to have been written for a clichéd romance novel or illustrated comic.     The way the actors play their roles (except for Rock Hudson), help to make the script work along with the fascinating images shown in the movie.   

The story concerns a rich oil family from Texas that  has the kindly, powerful, widowed head Jasper (Robert Keith) and his two adult children being the insecure, unconfident alcoholic Kyle (Robert Stack in a tour de force performance) and the gorgeous blond nymphomaniac Marilee (Dorothy Malone in a well-earned Oscar winning role).  Growing up with them is the perfect and handsome Mitch (Rock Hudson who’s limitations as an actor work in this cardboard role), who was sent to live with this family because of their money.    That his Father is shown as being a good and thoughtful man doesn’t quite click with someone who would give up his Son’s upbringing for wealth and into such a dysfunctional family.    

Mitch grows up to be everything that Jasper wanted in a son, as Kyle’s apparent best friend and the object of obsessive affection for Marilee.   Then to top things off both Mitch and Kyle fall in love with Lucy (Lauren Bacall in a comeback role for her) at the beginning of the film.    Of course Lucy marries the guy with the money and the film as well as Lucy try and pass this off as true love.     Kyle is such as a whining and obnoxious nerd that Lucy’s quick infatuation is hard to believe.   He reminded me of Robert Walker’s character from Hitchcock’s, “Stranger on a train”, except without the intelligence that Walker’s character had.    In any case Lucy enters the family and her presence serves as the catalyst that pulls the plot to its trashy core.  

It is however not the plot that fascinates here, but the visual feel of a corrupt American way of life that seeps through a very comic like look.    Lucy dresses in bright red that makes her hard to ignore against the casual grey and white backgrounds while Marilee returns to the house after acting shamelessly in a white dress that blends with the background allowing her to slither away when she walks up to her room.     The images give credence to the scripts artificial nature and the movie stays fascinating throughout.   

All the actors except for Hudson breathe life into their characters that matches the fine line between performance and over acting.    Hudson is cardboard and limited as he always is, but somehow lets his limitations suit the handsome and to perfect character that is Mitch.    

This is a gem of a movie that surprised me with its texture and feel.