Rent Magnificent Obsession (1954)

A Memory of Vision - Magnificent Obsession review by CH

At first sight, here, in 1954, is the first of those Fifties films in which Douglas Sirk takes a more subtle view of small-town life than their soap-opera and technicolor hues would lead many to realise. In fact, there is something of a religious parable to this particular tale which - as is well known - sees Rock Hudson, much troubled by a series of accidents which leave a newly widowed Jane Wyman blind, turn from a recklessly speedboating playboy to a caring, well nigh miracle-working surgeon guided to the light by an artist who himself had found epihany.

All this had been the stuff two decades earlier of a film with Robert Taylor and Irene Dunne a few years after publication of the otiginal novel by former pastor Lloyd Douglas, later known for such Biblical epics as The Robe. In all cases, it would be easy to scoff at the preposterous but Sirk's skill, both in setting and pace, carries the viewer along in a way that has one revelling in it all - even at such a moment, perhaps unique in cinema, which finds Hudson stripped to the waist before donning sugical robes to shroud muscles capable of lifting far more than a scalpel.

Here is a film which might appear to encourage a music-drenched wallow but time and again one is jolted from such a posture.

Hilarious - Magnificent Obsession review by sb

FILM & REVIEW In the 1950’s the films of Douglas Sirk were huge at the box office but sneered at by all the critics as lurid melodrama’s and “women’s pictures” Then a very odd thing happened - in the early 60’s various French critics writing for Cahir du Cinema including up and coming new wave directors like Truffaut and Godard began to praise his films saying too many people had been watching them in the wrong way . They argued they are social satires of bland, complacenct post war America and have been revalued in this light. This is the first major one in the series with a plot so overipe that it’s hilarious. Obnoxious playboy Bob Merrick (Hudson) crashes his sports boat and the only defibrillator around belongs to a local doctor . Merrick is saved but at the very same time the doctor has a heart attack and dies - if only he still had the defibrillator…. His widow Helen (Wyman) blames Bob and all attempts to bring her round fail. It’s revealed the doctor gave away all his money to help those in need with a philosophy that it must be kept secret and never repaid making him a better person. Bob tries this but again Helen rebuffs him and is run down by a taxi and ends up blind. He used to go to medical school but gave it up so determines to resume and becomes a first class brain surgeon- as you do. Helen’s condition worsens and only one man can save her…..paging Dr Bob. The whole thing is so overdone ( every time an emotional moment arrives a heavenly choir fills the score) it’s an absolute hoot. The Lake Tahoe locations are great with everyone perfectly dressed and all living in large houses with servants so casts a wry eye over a society with has become completely self absorbed - 4/5