Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Dalbert Pringle When it came to lurid melodrama, 1950s-style - (director) Douglas Sirk certainly had an uncanny knack for elevating it all to the fascinating level of pop-art.Sirk's hyper-stylized visuals (always generously applied) seemed to transform the usual hokum into something else, altogether - Like, how about a deliriously excessive representation of an utterly vacuous America?Set on a garish, Texan landscape of bold colours, shiny surfaces and vulgar opulence - Sibling oil-dynasty brats (now self-destructive adults) cling and claw and do their absolute damnedest to destroy all that is precious and joyful around them.From the clear perspective of pure entertainment - "Written On The Wind" all adds up to irresistible, 1950s, American kitsch. Actors Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone dig, like literal famished prospectors, into their roles with absolute relish and gusto.

tomsview A lot has been written about "Written on the Wind", and it's now considered a classic. However, beyond all the analysis, I just love seeing the stars strut their stuff. Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall play it low key – for the most part anyway – but Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone just go for it.Filthy rich, insecure and hard drinking Kyle Hadley (Robert Stack), sweeps beautiful secretary Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall) off her feet and marries her almost on a whim. However his best friend and protector from boyhood, Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), is secretly in love with Lucy while Kyle's sister, the self destructive, trampy and equally hard drinking Marylee (Dorothy Malone) is in love with Mitch – but not so secretively.Where "Peyton Place" needed a whole town to heat up the screen, the four main characters in "Written on the Wind" hardly needed any outside interference as they explored themes of infidelity, infertility, wife-beating, alcoholism, nymphomania, jealousy and murder.These days every second series on cable or TV seems to tackle themes such as these, in fact we have had more than five decades of this type of drama on the small screen since "Written on the Wind" was made. But it's easy to see how even if the film didn't establish the perfect format for this kind of drama it at least served as an inspiration for what was to come.Although the travails of rich families, usually Southern ones, had been a staple of Hollywood drama for a long time, "Written on the Wind" could be seen as the perfect bridge between the era of the great Hollywood melodramas and the full flowering of drama on television.These days, we know far too much about Rock Hudson's life, and we know the ending, but this movie is a legacy to a man who was so watchable at the height of his powers. "Written on the Wind" has that big movie feeling – it's that important movie you saw on a Friday night or on a rainy Saturday afternoon at the cinema. Here were stars big enough to fill the big screen; they were larger than life. Whenever I watch "Written on the Wind", it always brings that feeling back.

jarrodmcdonald-1 Written on the Wind is on par with Douglas Sirk's other cinematic experiments and is aided considerably by a most skilled cast. Particularly, the entire film hinges on Dorothy Malone's performance. She is the one who sells us the bill of goods at the end. And if she happened to be unconvincing, then we would feel that the entire 99 minutes was lost. But she does save the film at the end. And it is not surprising that for her efforts, she did receive the Oscar for a best supporting performance. Her scenes in the courtroom make it clear to us that not only is her brother Kyle (Robert Stack in an Oscar-nominated performance) a sad waste of a life, but they all are living a nothing existence-- except those who manage to get away (which is what Lauren Bacall and Rock Hudson must do in the last shots). Malone's character will never get away, having been forced to take over the family business at the end. It's a very sobering conclusion. In the meanwhile, Sirk fills the earlier portions of the film with inspired mise-en-scene which continues to build the tension and suggest the inevitable outcome for these characters. At every turn, the director is offering motifs and manipulating them carefully, often without our noticing. The scene where Stack throws the drink into the mirror is not only played for dramatic effect but is rich with symbolism. Another important moment occurs when the father (Robert Keith) is experiencing a heart attack on the stairs. Sirk does not allow the camera to linger on the old man during this display like most directors might be tempted to do. Instead he inserts quick cuts to other members of the household, experiencing their own mini-attacks of anguish at the same time. As a result, Sirk provides quite a searing tale about the so-called lives of the spoiled rich in a desolate oil town. He brings us into the world of its interconnected destinies and the smoldering passions of its inhabitants. He holds us hostage and doesn't let us go.

vincentlynch-moonoi Once again, I must dissent. I think this film reeks.Roger Ebert described it as "a perverse and wickedly funny melodrama...in which shocking behavior is treated with passionate solemnity, while parody burbles beneath." I think he was being very generous.I've always found Robert Stack to be a second-rate actor and just a little creepy. Here he outdid himself -- I found him to be a third-rate actor and really creepy...especially when he was looking directly at Lauren Bacall. Made me shudder. He gets killed off in the movie...it didn't come a minute too soon.I usually find Rock Hudson to be a rather appealing actor, but I didn't find him or his part to be a bit appealing here...perhaps more later in the film. Lauren Bacall, not usually one of my favorites, did about the only really decent acting here, though I have seen her better in a few other films. Dorothy Malone never quite made it to the top ranks either, although in a number of films I found her quite appealing...but not here.And, I have found some films directed by Douglas Sirk to be right up my alley -- especially "Magnificent Obsession", "All That Heaven Allows", and "Imitation of Life" -- but not this one. It took me 3 nights to wade through this, and several times I almost turned it off completely. I should have...my time would have been better spent whittling...and I don't even whittle! It seems that almost everything in this film is overdone. Over-acting. Overly dramatic music. Too much of a bad thing. I recommend you skip it!