Amid the most garish color, the most gutsy sexual/psychological symbolism, amid speeding cars, impotence, oil wells and alcoholism, Douglas Sirk's rich run amok. It was Written on the Wind, his most outrageous, outspoken work, that was responsible for the discovery of Sirk among European critics in the late '50s. Rainer Fassbinder comments:
“Written on the Wind is the story of a super-rich family. Robert Stack is the son, who was never as good, in any way, as his friend Rock Hudson.... They are not happy. There's no love in their lives. Then they meet Lauren Bacall.... She picks the one with whom things can't possibly work out in the long run.... Yes indeed, everything is bound to go wrong. Let's hope so. Dorothy Malone, the sister, is the only one who is in love with the right person...which is ridiculous, of course. It has to be ridiculous when everyone else thinks their surrogate actions are the real thing; it is quite clear that everything she does, she does because she can't have the real thing....
“People who are brought up to be useful, with their heads full of manipulated dreams, are always screwed up.... Dorothy Malone's oil empire is a surrogate for Rock Hudson. I hope she won't make it and will go mad.... For Douglas Sirk, madness is a sign of hope, I think....” (JB)