The Lauren Bacall Blogathon – Written on the Wind (1956)

This is the second of three posts dedicated to The Lauren Bacall Blogathon being held over at In The Good Old Days of Hollywood.

Tnx Crystal for letting me take part!

“To beauty, to truth which is anything but beautiful.” – Kyle

Number of Times Seen – 1 (9 Sep 2018)

Brief Synopsis – The alcoholic son of a Texas oil tycoon marries a woman who is loved by his best friend who in turn is being pursued by his sister.

My Take on it – This film tries too hard to be much more than it really is and that is where it fails and comes across as mediocre instead of epic.

The story and the plot move along like a typical soap opera and everything that happens seems to follow a stereotypical pattern instead of finding new and interesting ways to present such a story.

Elements of the future TV soap operas Dallas and Dynasty can be found around every corner and it all seems much too melodramatic for ts own good.

The cast is actually quite good, but none of them have enough to do in order to excel besides Dorothy Malone who ended up winning an Oscar for supporting actress for his role which evolves so much over the curse of the film.

Even Robert Stack who plays an alcoholic and earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this role doesn’t manage to impress enough.

Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall are both wasted in role that should be much more passionate than presented to us.

This film tries too hard to be more epic than it is and instead falls flat because it has trouble holding the scope of the story for too long a period of time.

Bottom Line – Mediocre, 50’s soap opera film that plays everything directly by the book. Great cast does a nice job, but things feels a bit too overdramatic than they should be especially given the fact that not much really happens here that is surprising in any way. Malone won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this role largely due to the way that her character evolves over the course of the story. This film tries to feel like an epic, yet falls flat because it doesn’t manage to hold on to the scope for too long.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – During production, Rock Hudson was married to Phyllis Gates, his manager’s former secretary. It was a short-lived marriage that many people, after Hudson’s homosexuality became known, insisted must have been a pre-arranged sham. But those who observed the two together, when Phyllis visited the set or when she and Hudson joined Robert Stack and his wife for casual weekends, said they never thought there was anything between them to indicate that their relationship was entirely a lie. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)

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