This second film version of Lloyd C. Douglas' spiritual novel Magnificent Obsession is in its own way as successful as the first (filmed in 1935) in glossing over the plot holes and logic gaps in the original novel. Rock Hudson plays Bob Merrick, a reckless playboy who is indirectly responsible for the death of a kindly and much-beloved doctor. The dead man's wife, Helen Phillips (Jane Wyman), refuses to accept Bob's apologies. When Helen is accidentally blinded, Bob decides to "do right" by her
anonymously, illustrating author Douglas's curious edict that the best sort of good deed is the one for which you're not rewarded. In record time, Bob becomes a brilliant physician, and it is he who performs the sight-restoring surgery on Helen. Rather than fade into the woodwork unheralded, Bob is at last forgiven by Helen, who has fallen in love with him during her sightless months without even knowing it. Luxuriously produced by Ross Hunter and directed con brio by Douglas Sirk, Magnificent Obsession was one of the most successful of Universal's big-budget "weepers" of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Sirk, though often celebrated by critics for his ironic approach to the melodrama, takes even his most overwrought scenes quite seriously. Theres not a whiff of condescension to be found...
Bringing yourself to cherish Sirk not just for his egghead credibility, but also his willful bad taste might be counterintuitive, but it'll be a magnificent obsession.
What people don't quite give Sirk credit for nowadays in their rush to justify his intellectual credentials is the fact that if he didn't necessarily believe in the cheesecake he served up.
This is a wonderful movie of the fifties, with a cast of stars that in today?s film world would be unheard off. The budget to get these stars together today would make anyone faint. Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman, and Agnes Moorehead. I grew up thinking Agnes Moorehead was a witches mother and she looked like one on
Bewitched. But in this movie as in others from the fifties she proved to be a glorious actress. Rock Hudson plays the part of a young Millionaire with not a care in the world till his life is save at the expense of another?s. He then falls in love with the wife of the man who dies, and the only way to win her is losing his spoiled ways and obtaining a Magnificent Obsession. How can any film the Rock appear in be awarded anything less the 4 stars.
August 5, 2009
Bruce Bruce
Super Reviewer
I wouldn't call Magnificent Obsession Douglas Sirk's best movie but it's still good. Like any other Sirk movie, it's pungent with melodrama and you'll often ask yourself if people really talk like this, even in the 50s. But the exaggerated imagery (again, like any other Sirk movie) is so gorgeous you find its
shortcomings easy to forgive.
No quotes approved yet for Magnificent Obsession. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Magnificent Obsession'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
