Review of Written on the Wind, directed by Douglas Sirk

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I feel like a lot of my blog introductions, especially when it comes to movies, have been lamenting on the fact I don’t have a ton of time lately. I used to work as a film critic (which, in fact, was so incredibly underpaid that I now make more off of this blog’s display ads than I ever did publishing anywhere else), and then when I was in graduate school I was writing a lot about film, so I used to watch so many movies.

But now I work an 8-5, come home, and then doom scroll my evenings away instead of watching the movies I used to love so dearly. And recently I realized I want to stop doing that, so I’ve set limits on my phone and am fully prepared to sit back and watch more movies and read more books in order to feed my brain.

I elevated this game by acquiring a Criterion subscription a few months back. Before getting my job I was a lot more tight with my money, and although I could technically afford the Criterion subscription, I put it into investments instead. But now I’m investing in my brain more along with my longterm retirement, which is a great feeling.

I don’t know why, but I’ve been on a 1950s movie kick lately. Whenever I see one suggested to me, I kind of just press play and see what it’s about. Most of the time I’ve been pleasantly surprised, but there have been some mediocre movies mixed in. The point of this tangent though? It’s how I watched Written on the Wind.

Let’s get into the review!

In a wealthy Southern family, scandal breaks out when their personal relationships take a deep dive.

This movie focuses on a Texas oil family, Hadley, and specifically the affairs of Kyle and Marylee. Kyle is alcoholic and Marylee has some major issues and is self-destructive, making them the perfect combo for being messes, especially when it comes to their personal relationships. Kyle tries to seek out validation from their father, but fails in favor of Mitch, a geologist working at the company, and Marylee’s in love with Mitch.

When Mitch and Kyle go on a business trip to the company’s New York City office, they meet Lucy, a secretary there. Lucy seems interested in Mitch at first, but then Kyle makes his move and tries to woo her over. Despite trying to ward him off, Kyle still keeps going, and she agrees to go to Miami with him on the family’s private plan.

They go to Miami together and Kyle ends up asking Lucy if she’ll marry him. She says yes, despite her previous attitude, and they get married. After their honeymoon, the duo returns to Texas and Lucy seems to have turned him around from his previous ways. At the same time, Marylee still continues to try and win over Mitch, but he seems to prefer Lucy over her.

A year passes and Kyle discovers he’s infertile. He becomes depressed at this news and starts drinking heavily, which leads to some scenarios that deeply embarrass Lucy. One day Jasper, the patriarch of the family, admits to Mitch that he thinks his children aren’t exactly confidence-worthy, and to back it up Marylee comes home escorted by police.

That same night Jasper falls down the staircase and dies from his injuries, which leads Kyle into a further spiral downwards. Lucy tries to help him but fails, then Mitch informs her that he’s going to quit his job and move to Iran. He drives her to the doctor, where she then finds out that she’s pregnant.

It’s during that same visit the doctor tells her that he previously told Kyle that he wasn’t able to have any children. When she goes home that night and tells Kyle over dinner with Marylee and Mitch about the baby. He falls into a rage, assuming that the child is Mitch’s, and then he assaults her. Mitch stops him, but she has a miscarriage that same night.

Kyle goes to the tavern that night and decides to murder Mitch. He returns home and retrieves a pistol, and Marylee tries to stop him as he holds Mitch at gunpoint. However, the gun goes off while they struggle and Kyle is killed. Marylee uses this moment as blackmail to try and force Mitch into marrying her.

He says no, and at the trial she does just that. But she has a change of heart and admits the truth, letting Mitch go as a free man. Lucy and Mitch leave the house together after this. Marylee runs the company alone while she grieves over what happened to her family, while Mitch moves to Iran.

Overall Thoughts

Something I’ve been writing about in these blog posts, over and over again, is about how I’m watching a lot of movies based on vibes these days. The only thing that really caught my interest in this movie originally was the fact Lauren Bacall was in it, and I knew I wanted to watch it because I love Bacall.

That said: considering I had no expectations going into this movie, and I enjoyed it a lot. Lately I’ve been breaking up my movie watch times because of the fact I’m so tired after work, but I stayed up late and watched this movie all the way through. The dialogue and pacing are good, the acting is good, and it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to some of the other fifties movies I’ve watched lately.

Give this one a chance if you can! I think that it was worth picking up for sure, and I had a lot of fun watching this movie. It makes me want to find some more unexpected Lauren Bacall movies on the channel if they have some…

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