Editing Written on the Wind (section)

==Production==
===Development===
{{multiple image
| footer = The film and its source novel were inspired by events involving tobacco heir [[Zachary Smith Reynolds]] and his wife, [[Libby Holman]]
| image1 = Smithreynolds1931.jpg
| width1 = 146
| alt1 = Reynolds in 1931
| image2 =  Libby-Holman-1930-cropped.jpg
| width2 = 149
| alt2 = Libby Holman in 1930
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The film's source novel by [[Robert Wilder (novelist)|Robert Wilder]] was inspired by the life and death of [[Zachary Smith Reynolds]], son of [[R. J. Reynolds]] and heir to the [[R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company|Reynolds Tobacco]] fortune, who died from a gunshot wound to the head at his family's estate after a birthday party.{{sfn|Evans|2013|p=14}} His wife, torch singer [[Libby Holman]], and close friend Alber Walker, fell under suspicion due to conflicting accounts given about the night's events, though neither were ever formally charged with a crime.{{sfn|Evans|2013|p=14}}

The novel had been optioned for a feature film adaptation by [[RKO Pictures]] in 1945 before the rights were sold to [[International Pictures]] the following year after RKO shelved the project.{{sfn|Evans|2013|p=14}} In 1946, [[Universal Pictures]] acquired the rights to the novel after absorbing International Pictures; however, the project remained in limbo due to pressure from the Reynolds family, who threatened to launch a lawsuit against any film version of Wilder's novel.{{sfn|Evans|2013|p=14}}

In 1955, producer [[Albert Zugsmith]], convinced the project could be a huge success for the studio, hired [[George Zuckerman]] to adapt a screenplay, though a number of notable changes were necessitated to avoid a lawsuit from the Reynolds family: several characters were eliminated or had their ages changed; the Hadley family fortune, which in the novel had been acquired from tobacco, was instead from oil; and its setting changed from [[North Carolina]] to Texas.{{sfn|Evans|2013|pages=14–16}} Several drafts of the screenplay were submitted to the [[Motion Picture Production Code]] before it was passed in late 1955.{{sfn|Evans|2013|pages=16–17}}

===Casting===
[[Lauren Bacall]], whose film career was foundering in the mid-1950s, accepted the relatively unflashy role of Lucy Moore at the behest of her husband, [[Humphrey Bogart]]. At the same time she was shooting the film, she was preparing for a television adaptation of [[Noël Coward]]'s ''[[Blithe Spirit (play)|Blithe Spirit]]'', co-starring Coward and [[Claudette Colbert]].

[[Dorothy Malone]], a brunette previously best known as the brainy bespectacled bookstore clerk in a scene with [[Humphrey Bogart]] in ''[[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|The Big Sleep]]'' (1946), had more recently played small supporting roles in a long string of [[B movies]]. For this film, she dyed her hair [[Blond#platinum blond|platinum blonde]] to shed her "nice girl" image and portray the obsessive Marylee Hadley. Her Oscar-winning performance finally gave her cachet in the film industry.

[[Robert Stack]] felt the primary reason he lost the Oscar to [[Anthony Quinn]] (whose winning performance in ''[[Lust for Life (1956 film)|Lust for Life]]'' was no more than 25 minutes long) was that [[20th Century Fox]], which had lent him to [[Universal Pictures|Universal-International]], organized block voting against him to prevent one of its contract players from winning an acting award while working at another studio.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Written on the Wind (1957) – Articles|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/96313/written-on-the-wind#articles-reviews|access-date=2020-08-07|publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]]}}</ref>

This was the sixth of eight films [[Douglas Sirk]] made with [[Rock Hudson]], and the most successful. The next year, Sirk reunited key cast members Hudson, Stack, and Malone for ''[[The Tarnished Angels]]'', a film about early aviators based on [[William Faulkner]]'s novel ''[[Pylon (novel)|Pylon]]''.

===Filming===
[[Principal photography]] began on November 28, 1955, in Los Angeles on the Universal Studios lot.{{sfn|Evans|2013|p=21}} The sequence set at Manhattan's [[21 Club]] was reconstructed on the Universal lot using photographs and dressed with actual paraphernalia from the restaurant, such as napkins and other items lent by the club owners.<ref name=afi/> The staircase set featured in the film as the Hadleys' home had also been used in Universal's 1925 film version of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)|The Phantom of the Opera]]'', as well as the 1936 film ''[[My Man Godfrey]]''.<ref name=afi/>

''Written on the Wind'' was one of the very few "flat wide screen" titles to be printed "direct to matrix" by Technicolor. This specially ordered 35-mm printing process was intended to maintain the highest possible print quality, as well as to protect the negative. Another film that was also given this treatment was ''[[This Island Earth]]'', which was also a Universal-International film.

===Music===
The title song, written by [[Sammy Cahn]] and [[Victor Young]], was sung by [[the Four Aces]] during the opening credits. The film's score was composed by [[Frank Skinner (composer)|Frank Skinner]].