Magnificent Obsession by Douglas Sirk 1954 with Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, Agnes Moorehead, Otto Kruger - 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' 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 ----- Movie Review Published August 5, 1954 New York Times = MOVIEGOERS who fondly remember Universal's "Magnificent Obsession" of eighteen years ago should rejoice in the faithful remake at Loew's State. Those who wince at the mere mention of the Lloyd C. Douglas novel, regarding it as a slick sermon conveyed through an appealing romance, are not likely to change their views.Produced in Technicolor by Ross Hunter, and co-starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson in the original Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor roles, the new version is unquestionably a handsome one. Better still, generally restrained performances at least dignify a moist text, which may seem inspiration to some, pure corn to others. It all depends.Here, again, is Dr. Douglas' own compound of retribution, philosophy and love. Deleting one major character and a few incidents, Robert Blees' scenario tenderly develops the relationship of a fine young woman and the millionaire rake indirectly responsible for both her widowhood and her blindness. For Mr. Douglas, of course, it wasn't enough to carry these two people through the years, letting the lady's incurability alone. At any rate, the inevitable climax, when Mr. Hudson, turned surgeon, restores her sight, seems far more lifelike than the underlying text.For the hero's real salvation, we learn, stems primarily from the business of doing random good "without letting anybody know about it." This, by cracky, is the obsession magnificent, passed on to Mr. Hudson by an artist, Otto Kruger, and actually nothing more than a furtive application of the Golden Rule, which we'll take straight and undiluted. At one point, Mr. Kruger even links the urgent anonymity to "a Man who died on the cross at the age of 33."Nearly two-thirds of the firm harps, literally, on the hero's oblique fixation, under Douglas Sirk's easy-going direction, as an unseen choir sings near by. For our money, the only miracle is the emergence of one credible performance, let alone a handful.Barbara Rush, Agnes Moorehead, Gregg Palmer and Mr. Kruger are neatly effective as sideline friends of the beset couple. But primary credit for mooring the picture to an earthly and earthy plane belongs to the two stars. In appealing contrast to Miss Dunne's pristine languor, Miss Wyman is, as usual, refreshingly believable throughout. And playing his first major role, the strapping, manly Mr. Hudson gives a fine, direct account of himself, in the film's only real surprise. Otherwise, Universal has delivered the goods?or good?exactly as prescribed by the doctor.
