Written on the Wind (1956) is one of classical Hollywood's most striking films and

ranks among Douglas Sirk's finest achievements. An intense melodrama about

an alcoholic playboy who marries the woman his best friend secretly loves,

the film is highly stylised, psychologically complex, and marked by Sirk's

characteristic charting of the social realities of 1950s America.

This first single study of Written on the Wind reassesses the film's artistic

heritage and place within the wider framework of contemporary American

culture. Incorporating original archival research, Peter William Evans examines

the production, promotion and reception of Written on the Wind, exploring its

themes – of time, memory, space, family, class and sex – as well as its brilliance

of form. Its vivid aesthetics, powerful performances and profound treatment

of human emotions, make Written on the Wind a masterpiece of Hollywood

melodrama.