What's the deal with "Written on the Wind"? (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

It hasn't been released on Blu-ray in the States. It's not available for streaming on Vudu nor iTunes. It recently played on TCM. Are there some legal/rights issues as to why it's only been released on DVD by Criterion back in 2001?

 

[Mark-P]

It just came out on Blu-ray in Australia. I think Criterion still has the US rights. Like the other Sirk movies, they are just taking their time to get them out on Blu-ray. Magnificent Obsession was in the same boat until they finally released it on Blu.

 

[Thomas T]

I suspect that Mark-P is right and that Universal still has the U.S. rights to the title and like All That Heaven Allows and Magnificent Obsession, Written On The Wind will eventually show up on Criterion's slate. If Criterion no longer has the rights then hopefully WOTW will be part of the recent Universal deal with Kino.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It just came out on Blu-ray in Australia. I think Criterion still has the US rights. Like the other Sirk movies, they are just taking their time to get them out on Blu-ray. Magnificent Obsession was in the same boat until they finally released it on Blu.

I hope Criterion releases it this year then. It's been many years since my last viewing of it so I decided to watch it again on the TCM app and I forgot how much I enjoyed this movie. Dorothy Malone was excellent in this melodrama. Bitchy and sexy at the same time.

 

[Lord Dalek]

IIRC Criterion's DVD of Written on the Wind used a release IP (cigarette burns and all) so maybe there's element issues out there.

 

[darkrock17]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this movie begin with some committing suicide at their desk in their office/den with the window open and then a big a gust of wind comes in and blows some papers off the desk where the name of the movie then appears?

 

[Robert Crawford]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this movie begin with some committing suicide at their desk in their office/den with the window open and then a big a gust of wind comes in and blows some papers off the desk where the name of the movie then appears?

Different movie!

 

[darkrock17]

Different movie!

And that movie would be what? All I can remember from that other movie was that opening with the suicide.

 

[Robert Crawford]

And that movie would be what? All I can remember from that other movie was that opening with the suicide.

I don't know, but it's not "Written on the Wind".

 

[darkrock17]

I don't know, but it's not "Written on the Wind".

Dang, I thought this could of been it as I've been trying find out what the name of that movie is for a good many years now.

 

[Keith Cobby]

I have the region B blu ray (Elephant Films). Looks very nice. Great film, one of Sirk's best.

 

[Robin9]

And that movie would be what? All I can remember from that other movie was that opening with the suicide.

The Big Heat begins with a suicide.

Written On The Wind begins with a superb sequence of Robert Stack driving a sports car recklessly while drinking from a bottle. He staggers from his car into a large house, a shot is fired and then the wind blows the pages of a calendar backwards. Your memory is not totally wrong!

I might watch my DVD of Written On The Wind tonight!

 

[Robin9]

Another film that begins with a suicide is Suspect starring Cher, Liam Neeson and Dennis Quaid.Good film too.

 

[Will Krupp]

It's probably the most insanely "fun" of all the Sirk/Hudson collaborations and MAY be my favorite of them (although I still think the Ross Hunter produced ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS is the better "movie") and the colors, clothes, and overall production design alone would make for a beautiful disc. I would grab this in a heartbeat and also can't fathom why this has not yet made it to blu-ray.

Come on, Criterion, we NEED the deliciously dirty Marylee on blu!

and when she gets arrested for "picking up" gorgeous gas pump jockey Grant Williams, has there ever been a more glamorous walk of shame?

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Written on the Wind is my favorite Sirk film. I imagine Criterion will eventually release it, but its taking forever.

It’s the most delicious film junk food ever. The storyline is brilliantly glorious.

 

[B-ROLL]

It's probably the most insanely "fun" of all the Sirk/Hudson collaborations and MAY be my favorite of them (although I still think the Ross Hunter produced ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS is the better "movie") and the colors, clothes, and overall production design alone would make for a beautiful disc. I would grab this in a heartbeat and also can't fathom why this has not yet made it to blu-ray.

Come on, Criterion, we NEED the deliciously dirty Marylee on blu!

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View attachment 67674

and when she gets arrested for "picking up" gorgeous gas pump jockey Grant Williams, has there ever been a more glamorous walk of shame?
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She should have known Grant was "The Incredible Shrinking Man" ...

 

[Thomas T]

It’s the most delicious film junk food ever..

Sigh ..... some 60 years later and it seems Sirk still can't get much respect in the U.S. In Europe, he's considered among the great film makers in cinema. His dissection of American life in the 1950s in such films as All That Heaven Allows, Written On The Wind, Tarnished Angels and Imitation Of Life among them dealing with racism, small town hypocrisy, the strait jacket 1950s society placed on women, ageism etc. shows us the ugliness and hypocrisy of a bourgeois society under its lush veneer. His admirers include such world class film makers as Jean Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, Guillermo Del Toro and Todd Haynes to name just a handful.

Junk food, indeed! Well, as the saying goes (and I'm paraphrasing), "One man's junk is another man's art."

 

[Robin9]

Sigh ..... some 60 years later and it seems Sirk still can't get much respect in the U.S. In Europe, he's considered among the great film makers in cinema. His dissection of American life in the 1950s in such films as All That Heaven Allows, Written On The Wind, Tarnished Angels and Imitation Of Life among them dealing with racism, small town hypocrisy, the strait jacket 1950s society placed on women, ageism etc. shows us the ugliness and hypocrisy of a bourgeois society under its lush veneer. His admirers include such world class film makers as Jean Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodovar, Martin Scorsese, Guillermo Del Toro and Todd Haynes to name just a handful.

Junk food, indeed! Well, as the saying goes (and I'm paraphrasing), "One man's junk is another man's art."

It's possible Written On The Wind will be released on Blu-ray disc in Europe first because Universal seems still to hold the rights. In Europe a DVD box-set of Sirk's films was released and Written On The Wind was included.

 

[Thomas T]

It's possible Written On The Wind will be released on Blu-ray disc in Europe first because Universal seems still to hold the rights. In Europe a DVD box-set of Sirk's films was released and Written On The Wind was included.

It's already been released on blu ray in Europe by Elephant films in France which has released most of Sirk's Universal films on blu ray. In addition to Written On The Wind, they've also released The Tarnished Angels, A Time To Love And A Time To Die, All That Heaven Allows, Magnificent Obsession, Thunder On The Hill, Imitation Of Life, There's Always Tomorrow, Interlude, Sign Of The Pagan, Captain Lightfoot and Battle Hymn.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Thomas, what’s your favorite of the Sirk films?