Press Release Criterion Press Release: Written on the Wind (1956) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[MartinP.]

I believe Written on the Wind fans will quite enjoy this.

There's a video on youtube, "Labor Day 1965 at Rock Hudson's House 1." It's home movie footage that Roddy McDowall took. There are lots of glimpses of Hollywood celebrities. (Even Natalie Schaefer appears briefly, this was when she was doing Gilligan's Island!)

The part you might find interesting is at about the 2:15 mark. The person who posted this footage (it's all silent) says, Rock and Betty (Lauren Bacall) are reciting the lines from "Written on the Wind": "What a man says to a woman- what a woman says to a man- are words too often written on the wind."

Indeed they are!

 

[Noel Aguirre]

Love the cover and love the film. Stack and Malone are unbelievable while Hudson and Bacall are ok as written as they are both outsiders of the family. An incredible film and luckily I have the DVD for the other extras. But this really should have been a 4K release to unleash all the lurid colors with as much saturation as possible. Cannot wait!

 

[Will Krupp]

Perhaps, but "Written on the Wind" was released the same month that Bogart died of cancer. I'm not sure Bogart even saw the picture as he was a very sick man after filming was done for that movie.

If I'm remembering correctly, I believe that he told her the script was trash and she shouldn't do it. I don't think he was reacting to the finished movie, though shooting was completed about a year before its release so who knows? Again, I have no confidence in my memory in regards to this (I can't tell you where or when I heard it) but I can't seem to shake the story from my brain. I don't THINK I made it up, but you never know, lol!

 

[Robert Crawford]

If I'm remembering correctly, I believe that he told her the script was trash and she shouldn't do it. I don't think he was reacting to the finished movie, though shooting was completed about a year before its release so who knows? Again, I have no confidence in my memory in regards to this (I can't tell you where or when I heard it) but I can't seem to shake the story from my brain. I don't THINK I made it up, but you never know, lol!

As a fan of the movie, the script is kind of trashy.

 

[Will Krupp]

As a fan of the movie, the script is kind of trashy.

trashy and delicious!

 

[Robin9]

I have this movie. Don't have a Blu-Ray player so I know nothing about difference Blu-Ray over regular. This movie is one of my very favorites in my movie library! I wish they could make movies today like this! I suppose that era is way gone!

The DVD of Written On The Wind is very good, so good in fact that I was not desperate for the Blu-ray disc although that is a real upgrade.

Bacall didn't like it. When an interviewer who was obviously a Sirk fan wanted to discuss it with her she practically rolled her eyes and clearly did not want to discuss it. She seemed ashamed by it. Overwrought soap opera.

I've seen an interview with Lauren Bacall where she rejected the interviewer's notion that Douglas Sirk was a great director. When the interviewer responded by pointing out certain details, she replied that was in the script and could not be attributed to the director.

 

[roxy1927]

Malone became puritanical and religious in her later years. I wonder what she felt about this film then.

 

[Thomas T]

Malone became puritanical and religious in her later years. I wonder what she felt about this film then.

In one of her later interviews, long after she left Hollywood, she said, "I suppose if we made Written On The Wind today, we'd all be be naked as jaybirds!" Still, even after that interview she played Sharon Stone's murderess gal pal in Basic Instinct (1992), so obviously she wasn't that puritanical.

 

[Thomas T]

If I'm remembering correctly, I believe that he told her the script was trash and she shouldn't do it. I don't think he was reacting to the finished movie, though shooting was completed about a year before its release so who knows? Again, I have no confidence in my memory in regards to this (I can't tell you where or when I heard it) but I can't seem to shake the story from my brain. I don't THINK I made it up, but you never know, lol!

Just goes to show you, you can't believe everything you read. I've always read that she took Written On The Wind because Bogart urged her to do it.

 

[Thomas T]

Bacall didn't like it. She seemed ashamed by it.

Then she was a hypocrite as in 2005, she accepted an award from the Austin Film Society on behalf of the film which was being inducted into the Texas Film Hall Of Fame!

 

[TravisR]

Then she was a hypocrite as in 2005, she accepted an award from the Austin Film Society on behalf of the film which was being inducted into the Texas Film Hall Of Fame!

Hypocrite might be too strong because I think as nearly any actor gets older, the roles get less and less, and they're fading as time marchs onward, they're just happy that people remember any movie they were in.

 

[Gerani53]

Actually, the nymphomaniac daughter of a rich, dysfunctional family is only part of WRITTEN ON THE WIND. The movie also deals with the rivalry of best friends who are like brothers, a father with limited confidence in his son, mental illness, and impotency. This was startling stuff back in '56, especially in a quality mainstream movie. Trash is what I'd call most of producer Albert Zugsmith's later films, his Mamie Van Doren epics and such. But WRITTEN ON THE WIND, despite having exploitive elements, is not an exploitation film. It's a smartly-written melodrama with some unforgettable moments, directed by a pro who understood the material.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Actually, the nymphomaniac daughter of a rich, dysfunctional family is only part of WRITTEN ON THE WIND. The movie also deals with the rivalry of best friends who are like brothers, a father with limited confidence in his son, mental illness, and impotency. This was startling stuff back in '56, especially in a quality mainstream movie. Trash is what I'd call most of producer Albert Zugsmith's later films, his Mamie Van Doren epics and such. But WRITTEN ON THE WIND, despite having exploitive elements, is not an exploitation film. It's a smartly-written melodrama with some unforgettable moments, directed by a pro who understood the material.

You don’t think we understand those issues are broached in this movie? If you’re upset by some of us using the word “trashy” in describing this movie then that’s just some of us having some fun. For others, it may actually be what they think of the movie which is their opinion that runs counter to your own. That’s film appreciation for you!

 

[Thomas T]

You don’t think we understand those issues are broached in this movie? If you’re upset by some of us using the word “trashy” in describing this movie then that’s just some of us having some fun. For others, it may actually be what they think of the movie which is their opinion that runs counter to your own. That’s film appreciation for you!

One of Douglas Sirk's most famous quotes is "There is a very short distance between high Art and trash". And no one walked that line better than him. The reverence Sirk is held in by Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodovar, Jean Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Quentin Tarantino, Todd Haynes, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Guillermo Del Toro among many other acclaimed directors speaks volumes. His reputation will withstand the naysayers.

 

[Will Krupp]

Just goes to show you, you can't believe everything you read. I've always read that she took Written On The Wind because Bogart urged her to do it.

Well, I think I've either found the SOURCE of the story OR, possibly, someone else who heard the same story and chose to repeat it on imdb. In the trivia section on the movie they list this:

Humphrey Bogart was unimpressed by the film and advised his wife Lauren Bacall not to make another like it. In a 2000 interview with Mark Cousins, Bacall called it "a masterpiece of suds," and claimed to have only made the film to work with Rock Hudson.

Now I realize this certainly isn't a definitive answer, but at least I know I'm not completely nuts! (at least in this case, anyhow)

 

[Robert Crawford]

So Bogart was unimpressed by a film, that he probably never saw the finished movie because he was terminally ill and died the same month it was released.

 

[roxy1927]

I saw Bacall in Applause at the Palace as a boy. Though extremely stylish with a charisma that reached Neptune she seemed so middle aged. Now I'm considerably older than what she was then. Sobering.

 

[JPCinema]

Malone became puritanical and religious in her later years. I wonder what she felt about this film then.

Hmmmm Dorothy Malone's last film was BASIC INSTINCT

 

[roxy1927]

Yes so it's been said. But I've never seen it so it might as well be Peg O' My Heart for all I know.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yes so it's been said. But I've never seen it so it might as well be Peg O' My Heart for all I know.

If you did see it then puritanical and religious would be the last things you would think of her in those late 60s years. Of course, she lived another 26 years so anything can happen when one is getting closer to the end.