Curt Loves Oldies
WRITTEN ON THE WIND
Movie Review by Curt Solash
MOVIE DETAILS:
Cast:
Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Malone.
Director: Douglas Sirk.
Awards:
MY THOUGHTS:
The director called it "garbage". One of its main stars echoed his opinion. It is lurid, sleazy, sensationalistic, salacious, full of dysfunction, alcoholism, sexual inadequacy, suggestion of unfaithfulness, nymphomania, and murder - very heady stuff for 1956. But it's NOT garbage! It is fabulously entertaining with top-notch production values, direction, award winning acting, gorgeous color, a hit theme song, and you won't blink. One of my favorites - Written On the Wind.
It was a tremendous box-office hit, proving that the masses went to see this "garbage" in droves. And, why not? Universal was in a bad way after the war and the honchos bet big that with the right vehicles, and just slightly over the hill female stars, audiences particularly "women" would come by the truckload.
And nobody knew how to direct such movies like Douglas Sirk. Another of the many emigres from Germany in the industry (like Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, etc.), he knew very much how to make "women's melodramas" (Others include Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life), full of lots of juicy elements - tears, pain, love, self-recrimination, sacrifice - soap operas supreme, all of them. They saved Universal-International from bankruptcy.
This one is about the Hadley clan, a very rich family (oil) who own the town of
WRITTEN ON THE WIND
Movie Review by Curt Solash
MOVIE DETAILS:
- 1956
- Universal
Cast:
Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Malone.
Director: Douglas Sirk.
Awards:
- Best supporting Oscar - Dorothy Malone
- Best supporting actor nominee - Robert Stack
- Best music and original song nominee - Victor Young and Sammy Cahn
- Best supporting actress Golden Globes nominee - Dorothy Malone.
MY THOUGHTS:
The director called it "garbage". One of its main stars echoed his opinion. It is lurid, sleazy, sensationalistic, salacious, full of dysfunction, alcoholism, sexual inadequacy, suggestion of unfaithfulness, nymphomania, and murder - very heady stuff for 1956. But it's NOT garbage! It is fabulously entertaining with top-notch production values, direction, award winning acting, gorgeous color, a hit theme song, and you won't blink. One of my favorites - Written On the Wind.
It was a tremendous box-office hit, proving that the masses went to see this "garbage" in droves. And, why not? Universal was in a bad way after the war and the honchos bet big that with the right vehicles, and just slightly over the hill female stars, audiences particularly "women" would come by the truckload.
And nobody knew how to direct such movies like Douglas Sirk. Another of the many emigres from Germany in the industry (like Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, etc.), he knew very much how to make "women's melodramas" (Others include Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life), full of lots of juicy elements - tears, pain, love, self-recrimination, sacrifice - soap operas supreme, all of them. They saved Universal-International from bankruptcy.
This one is about the Hadley clan, a very rich family (oil) who own the town of