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

[Will Krupp]

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.

Well, we really have no idea. I don't think we can say for certain what he saw and didn't see, can we? They finished filming a full year before he died and held it for a domestic release at Christmas 1956, eleven months later. That doesn't necessarily mean that no one involved got to see and form an opinion of it prior to that.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Well, we really have no idea. I don't think we can say for certain what he saw and didn't see, can we? They finished filming a full year before he died and held it for a domestic release at Christmas 1956, eleven months later. That doesn't necessarily mean that no one involved got to see and form an opinion of it prior to that.

Have it your way, but he was a very sick man in 1956, and he died a very painful death so I have my doubts.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

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[roxy1927]

I do remember Malone in some early 70s interview with it might have been Rex Reed outraged that a family musical of all things involved itself with white slavery. And I bet Ross Hunter gave her a free ticket to the premiere.

 

[Gerani53]

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!

True enough. But what I find interesting is that the film revels in its exploitative side (mainly in the depicting of Malone's nympho behavior) even while fearlessly and sympathetically taking on the reality of these self-destructive personal issues. A drunk throwing a bottle of booze he's just downed against a wall is a "trashy" moment; but we're also witnessing a smartly-acted portrait of a doomed human being in desperate need of love. That's what makes WOTW so curious; the ironic clash between high and low, happiness and unhappiness, sensitivity and trash, seems to permeate the movie. Maybe that's why we keep watching it.

 

[mskaye]

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.

True enough. But what I find interesting is that the film revels in its exploitative side (mainly in the depicting of Malone's nympho behavior) even while fearlessly and sympathetically taking on the reality of these self-destructive personal issues. A drunk throwing a bottle of booze he's just downed against a wall is a "trashy" moment; but we're also witnessing a smartly-acted portrait of a doomed human being in desperate need of love. That's what makes WOTW so curious; the ironic clash between high and low, happiness and unhappiness, sensitivity and trash, seems to permeate the movie. Maybe that's why we keep watching it.

The full quote by Sirk is this..."“This is the dialectic - there is a very short distance between high art and trash, and trash that contains an element of craziness is by this very quality nearer to art.” If you leave out the "craziness" part, the quote misses the mark. It encapsulates Sirk at his artful best (or Ulmer or Fuller or Lynch or Godard, you name it...)

 

[DVBRD]

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)

I admit, I am the one who added the info on IMDb (except for the bit about Bogie). This was after I saw that interview with her on YT. (Which I tried to find after this was posted, but I guess is no longer there).

 

[Noel Aguirre]

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.

Maybe she was ashamed of it because she found out her leading man was practically an avowed homo-sexual in those inner Hollywood circles. Gay wasn’t even a term used back then- only a word in Cole Porter songs. However I find it hard to believe Bacall would be ashamed of anything from what I’ve read of her.

 

[roxy1927]

And it is famously used by Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby.

 

[Mark B]

And it is famously used by Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby.

And that's how it happens. BAM! All of a sudden.

 

[B-ROLL]

And that's how it happens. BAM! All of a sudden.

I believe the French have a saying:

!

 

[B-ROLL]

I was able to pre-order this through Target's B2G1 sale ...

 

[Robert Crawford]

I was able to pre-order this through Target's B2G1 sale ...

Yup, I got Written on the Wind, Love Affair and Miller's Crossing.

 

[MartinP.]

If Bacall was ashamed of it (and/or Rock Hudson) why would she meet Rock at a gathering in 1965 (see video in post #41) and recite lines from Written on the Wind with him?

 

[Will Krupp]

If Bacall was ashamed of it (and/or Rock Hudson) why would she meet Rock at a gathering in 1965 (see video in post #41) and recite lines from Written on the Wind with him?

I believe it's just a "what if" speculative musing on Noel's part. Bacall was a staunch liberal and surrounded by members of the LGBT community in Hollywood and New York her entire life. There's never been anything to suggest she would have that reaction to Rock Hudson or any other gay man or woman. Though the term "gay" wasn't used in the way it is now, people were a lot savvier in those days than we often give them credit for. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[roxy1927]

She was ashamed of the movie not Rock. 'Suds!'

 

[Thomas T]

It seems to me all this speculation that Bacall disliked WOTW, is just that. Speculation, not fact. And even if she did dislike it, it says more about her than the film. Joan Crawford couldn't stop badmouthing Johnny Guitar in an interview ("I should have had my head examined. No excuse for a picture being this bad or me making it") yet the western is one of the most highly regarded in the genre. Bacall might have been resentful that all the attention went to Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone, "supporting" players rather than her or Hudson.

Trivia: According to Kirk Douglas, he wanted his old friend Bacall (they had worked together in Young Man With A Horn) to co-star with him in The Last Sunset (1961) but she found the incest angle distasteful and said no. Ironically, she was replaced by her WOTW co-star Malone reuniting with Hudson for the third time.

 

[roxy1927]

There is an interview with her on youtube where she can barely stand discussing the director or film and she just says 'suds.'

 

[Thomas T]

There is an interview with her on youtube where she can barely stand discussing the director or film and she just says 'suds.'

Link, please.

 

[roxy1927]

I'm not making this up.

I'll try to find it.