Pardon Me, I Seem To Be Brushing You Out Of My Hair

Ariana Nisan 27, 2022

Sister-in-laws bonding.

I recently watched Written on the Wind (1956) directed by Douglas Sirk. This is the first film I have seen that has Lauren Bacall in colour, her kind of beauty and eyebrows are just so breathtaking.

In work mode.

Lucy Moore played by Bacall falls for alcoholic playboy Kyle Hadley, played by Robert Stack. Kyle tries to woo Lucy with money, a private jet, stocking a hotel room with evening gowns and hats, but it is when he reveals his insecurities that she gives into his advances.

Kyle is rich and insecure, the complete opposite of his best friend/'brother' Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson) who has lived with the rich Hadley family from a young age, as his real father wanted him to have the life he could not provide his son. Mitch is forever taking the blame for Kyle's mishaps and Kyle's father treats Mitch as more of a son than his own flesh and blood, and as you can imagine this grates on Kyle somewhat.

Good men wear baseball caps.

Then there is the crazed sex kitten Mary Lee Hadley played by Dorothy Malone, she loves Mitch and does her best to drive her brother Kyle round the bend. Mary is driven to despair because Mitch has fallen for Lucy, and not her god damn it. Mary has a penchant for picking up strange men off the street and having her way with them, so she really isn't good ol' honest Mitch's type.