Written on the Wind (1956) is one of classical Hollywood's most striking films andranks among Douglas Sirk's finest achievements. An intense melodrama aboutan alcoholic playboy who marries the woman his best friend secretly loves,the film is highly stylised, psychologically complex, and marked by Sirk'scharacteristic charting of the social realities of 1950s America. This first single study of Written on the Wind reassesses the film's artisticheritage and place within the wider framework of contemporary Americanculture. Incorporating original archival research, Peter William Evans examinesthe production, promotion and reception of Written on the Wind, exploring itsthemes - of time, memory, space, family, class and sex - as well as its brillianceof form. Its vivid aesthetics, powerful performances and profound treatmentof human emotions, make Written on the Wind a masterpiece of Hollywoodmelodrama.

Acknowledgments .- Overture: The Wind .- 1 Production and Promotion .- 2 Realism, Modernism and Melodrama .- 3 Mise en scene .- 4 Dorothy Malons/Marylee: 'Enough devil in her...' .- 5 Lauren Bacall: 'A lady, a beautiful lady' .- 6 Rock Hudson and Robert Stack: Cain and Abel .- Coda: The River .- Synopsis .- Notes .- Credits .- Bibliography.