Magnificent Obsession

When churlish, spoiled rich man Bob Merrick foolishly wrecks his speed boat, the rescue team resuscitates him with equipment that's therefore unavailable to aid a local hero, Dr. Wayne Phillips, who dies as a result. Phillips had helped many people, and when Merrick learns Phillips' secret, to give selflessly and in secret, he tries it in a ham-handed way.


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.


All Movie Guide - Craig Butler
Magnificent Obsession is arguably director Douglas Sirk's masterpiece, even though there are many who find it campy or ridiculous. Indeed, the plot of Obsession is ridiculous just as it was in its original version, something of which Sirk himself was aware. But the screenplay and direction make an asset of this fact, accepting it at face value and saying, "So it's ridiculous? It's unreal and artificial? So what? Why does a film have to be realistic rather than fantastic?" Sirk and his screenwriters create their own cinematic reality, and it at times is in stark contrast to our own, so much so that it inspires laughter. But it also inspires devotion; Sirk's dedication and commitment to creating this world are so total that one can't help but be drawn in. Even those who do manage to resist Obsession's pull are likely to be impressed by Sirk's visual skill. The film drips with rich Technicolor hues and revels in glorious straight-lined architecture broken up with surprising skewed interruptions. Russell Metty's camerawork is evocative, often amazing, utilizing Sirk's obsession with mirrors like never before. The cast is also a big plus, with Rock Hudson turning in a more than respectable performance, Jane Wyman turning in an exceptional one, and fine support from Agnes Moorehead, Barbara Rush, and in a role that is something of a Sirk stand-in, Otto Kruger. Taken on its own terms, the philosophy espoused in the screenplay is a bit over the top; however, read as a creed about the obsession that drives the artistic creative force and has artists such as film directors playing a kind of god themselves, it becomes rather fascinating. Magnificent Obsession is that rare film that inspires a kind of obsession in many viewers itself.