Movies Under the Stars

Written on the Wind (1956)

An NCPA & Film Heritage Foundation Presentation

A sweeping melodrama with a stellar cast, Written on the Wind is arguably Sirk’s masterpiece. The Technicolor expressionism of Douglas Sirk reached a fever pitch with this operatic tragedy, which finds the director pushing his florid visuals and his critiques of American culture to their subversive extremes. Alcoholism, nymphomania, impotence, and deadly jealousy—these are just some of the toxins coursing through a massively wealthy, degenerate Texan oil family. When a sensible secretary (Lauren Bacall) has the misfortune of marrying the clan’s neurotic scion (Robert Stack), it drives a wedge between him and his lifelong best friend (Rock Hudson) that unleashes a maelstrom of psychosexual angst and fury. Featuring an unforgettably debauched, Oscar-winning supporting performance by Dorothy Malone, Written on the Wind is as perverse a family portrait as has ever been splashed across the screen. “It was a piece of social criticism, of the rich and the spoiled and of the American family, really,” Sirk commented in retrospect about this movie.

Director: Douglas Sirk
Screenplay: George Zuckerman
Cinematography: Russell Metty
Cast: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone & Robert Keith

Admission on a first-come-first-served  basis. NCPA Members will get preferential seating till 6.20 pm.