Find out how and why the melodrama classic “Written on the Wind” almost never hit theaters.
We are in 1945. Robert Wilder prepares Written on the Winda novel adapted from the case of Zachary Smith Reynolds, heir to a financial empire linked to tobacco found dead of a bullet in the head when he was only 20 years old.
No one has ever been convicted for this event, considered a suicide despite suspicions towards some of Reynolds’ relatives. Studio RKO buys the rights to Wilder’s book before it’s even released, to make it into a movie.
1946, the novel is published, but adapting it is no longer relevant to RKO, which resells the rights to International Pictures, a brand new firm, founded barely two years earlier. On October 1, 1946, International Pictures merged with Universal Pictures to form Universal-International, and again Written on the Wind was put on the project-hold shelf.
Universal Pictures Rock Hudson
It will indeed be necessary to wait until 1955 so that, on the impulse of producer Albert Zugsmith, the studio does not revive the idea. Director Douglas Sirk has just shot the western Taza, son of Cochise written by George Zuckerman with Rock Hudson in Indian! Zugsmith wants to reunite the trio for Written on the Wind, but the family of Zachary Smith Reynolds is worrying: they threaten to file a complaint.
At Universal, it’s all about the action! The name of the Reynolds is changed to celes Hadley, the tobacco company for oil and North Carolina for Texas. The name of Reynolds’ wife, who was called Libby in real life and Lilith in the novel, is changed to Lucy and the character changes from actress to secretary.
Universal Pictures
Lauren Bacall
All these modifications were repeatedly subjected to the Motion Picture Production Code (better known by its nickname “Hays Code”) before the release, in order to verify that legally and morally, everything was in the nails.
Finally, on December 25, 1956, Written on the Wind was released on the screens, avoided the trial, and was a hit, making the best first day of a Universal film at the time. In total, it reaches $4.3 million in revenue, adjusted to 2023, $47 million. A great success.
Universal Pictures
Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone
As a result, the Sirk-Zuckerman-Hudson trio would meet again the following year on La Ronde de l’aube.
The Zachary Reynolds case also inspired two feature films: Sing Sinner Sing (1933) and Reckless (1935), released before the novel was written.