MovieChat Forums > Written on the Wind (1956) Discussion > Page-to-Screen Changes

Page-to-Screen Changes

posted 13 years ago by Harold_Robbins
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I'm reading the novel, and there were lots of changes from page-to-screen: the family's name is Whitfield in the Robert Wilder novel, the setting is North Carolina, and the family business is tobacco. And most of the characters' names underwent changes ('Kyle' is 'Cary' in the novel, 'Marylee' is 'Ann-Charlotte,' 'Mitch Wayne' is 'Reese Benton' and 'Lucy' is 'Lillith'). According to Wikipedia:

The screenplay by George Zuckerman was based on Robert Wilder's 1945 novel of the same name, a thinly disguised account of the real-life scandal involving torch singer Libby Holman and her husband, tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds. Zuckerman shifted the locale from North Carolina to Texas, made the source of the family wealth oil rather than tobacco, and changed all the character names.

There's much more of the characters' backstory in the novel.

"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified."

[–] Harold_Robbins 13 years ago

Although the scandal would likely have been remembered by adult readers in the 1940s, the movie was made almost a quarter of a century after the scandal - but Holman was still alive, and the Reynolds family still had clout, so it's likely Universal made the further changes in the story to avoid the possibility of lawsuits (though apparently this wasn't an impediment to the book's publication and success).

Malone was very good, and undoubtedly clinched her Oscar by keeping a straight face as she fondled that oil derrick paperweight in her final scene . . . (the film's ending is very different from the novel, in which the Mitch Wayne character actually ends up with the sister).

"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified."