Written On The Wind - The Criterion Collection

Newly reissued on Blu-ray! Douglas Sirk's Technicolor expressionism reached a fever pitch with this operatic tragedy, which finds the director pushing his florid visuals and his critiques of American culture to their subversive extremes. Alcoholism, nymphomania, impotence, and deadly jealousy-these are just some of the toxins coursing through a massively wealthy, degenerate Texan oil family.

When a sensible secretary (Lauren Bacall) has the misfortune of marrying the clan's neurotic scion (Robert Stack), it drives a wedge between him and his lifelong best friend (Rock Hudson) that unleashes a maelstrom of psychosexual angst and fury.

Featuring an unforgettably debauched, Oscar-winning supporting performance by Dorothy Malone and some of Sirk's most eye-popping mise-en-scène, Written on the Wind is as perverse a family portrait as has ever been splashed across the screen.

• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Acting for Douglas Sirk, a 2008 documentary featuring archival interviews with Sirk; actors Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, and Dorothy Malone; and producer Albert Zugsmith
• New interview with film scholar Patricia White about the film and melodrama
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by filmmaker and critic Blair McClendon
• New Blu-ray cover illustration by Sam Hadley