Magnificent Obsession

There's a lot of spiritual chatter in the two versions of Lloyd C. Douglas's "Magnificent Obsession", and in the 1935 original, it is sadly overshadowed by a weak leading man and some unnecessary comic relief. What works is the leading lady-Irene Dunne-perfect in comedy, drama, musicals, epics, even westerns, and equally as tragic as her later, four-hankie weeper "Love Affair". Dunne is a gem that even with tragedy, you could see a sparkle in her eye that refused to dim. Loosing her older husband in a tragic accident then going blind because of the unfortunate circumstances concerning the man indirectly responsible for her husband's death, Dunne never looses her spirit, always gracious and lovely, yet even humanly annoyed when continually harassed by the well-meaning but ultimately intrusive man, played by Robert Taylor. Taylor has the difficult task of trying to make his character even slightly believable, and is perhaps defeated by a role almost impossible to take seriously. He's one of those either truly selfish characters or all of a sudden too god to be true. At first, his attempts to live the "Pay It Forward" motto ring realistically false because he is trying way too hard. However, as his obsession becomes more "magnificent", his actions take on a seemingly high-brow quality that is lacking in sincerity. Taylor's niche was light comedy or action/adventure, and as handsome as he was, he seemed weak in romantic drama because he was always overshadowed by more magnetic leading ladies. The other fly in the ointment here is droll Charles Butterworth as a suitor of Dunne's stepdaughter Betty Furness who ends up getting drunk with Taylor and provides unnecessary comedy that stops the plot cold. Stronger in the cast are Sara Haden as the loyal nurse who stands by Dunne and even comes to understand Taylor's desire to right a wrong and lead a more noble life, and Ralph Morgan as the Bohemian sculptor who expresses the film scene to Taylor when he drunkenly crashes outside Morgan's home. Ironically, many of Dunne's films were re-made, including this one with Jane Wyman, and because of that, they were lost to film audiences for several decades. Most of the original versions of these films (which include "Back Street", "Roberta", "Love Affair", "Show Boat" and "My Favorite Wife") are overshadowed by the color remakes, but have shown themselves to be as fresh today, mainly because of their magnetic leading lady.

I don't remember how I learned of "Magnificent Obsession". I watched the two movie versions back-to-back. John Stahl's original is undeniably the more serious one, while Douglas Sirk's remake has more of a glossy quality. I interpreted the movie (I've never read the book and probably never will, given how long it takes me to get through books) as a look at redemption, with the carefree protagonist trying to right a wrong. Everyone does a perfect job in it. There's nothing significant in terms of cinematography or anything, but the story and direction make it one that you have to see. I never realized that edition of "The Real Mother Goose" existed all the way back then.

"Magnificent Obsession" is a 1935 film starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor; it was remade in the '50s in Technicolor and starred Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. The story is preposterous, the melodrama is over the top, but this film gave both Taylor, a farm boy from Nebraska and Hudson, a truck driver from Illinois, their big breaks. Robert Merrick (Taylor) is a drunken playboy who, one afternoon, falls off his sailboat and has to be resuscitated with the use of what's called in this film a "pulmotor," a device that forces oxygen into the lungs. Unfortunately, the pulmotor was needed across the lake for an older man, a Dr. Hudson, who has had a heart attack, but because one isn't available, the man dies. When his wife (Dunne) and daughter (Betty Furness) arrive home, they get the horrible news. There is bitterness everywhere because Dr. Hudson was beloved, a fine doctor and an exceptional man, and Merrick is a drunken, rich loser. At one point, Merrick meets a man (Ralph Morgan) who gives him the secret philosophy that Dr. Hudson lived by and taught him - give anonymously and without expecting repayment. When Merrick spots Mrs. Hudson, he has no idea who she is and tries to pick her up. One day, he offers her a ride and "runs out of gas." As she's leaving the car to take a ride with someone else, a car hits her and she is badly injured - in fact, she's blinded. Merrick now befriends her in the park, where she sits practicing her Braille. He doesn't identify himself - she calls him "Dr. Robert"; he tells her that he once had aspirations to be a doctor himself. He arranges for her to have a steady income, since Dr. Hudson gave most of his money away and only has worthless stocks - she thinks her husband's copper stocks are now worth a lot -- and then he arranges for some of the finest doctors in the world to meet in Paris and study her. She thinks it's because her husband was so highly regarded. Alas, the prognosis is that the doctors see no point in surgery. It goes on from there, assuming fabulous aspects. This kind of melodrama was extremely popular in the 1930s; director Douglas Sirk loved this type of film and remade some of them in the '50s, giving them big, glitzy productions, and made some new ones as well. Though today the plot seems ridiculous, because of the commitment and likability of the actors and the spiritual undertone that goes throughout the film, somehow one doesn't stop watching, and it sure worked well in 1935 and 1954. Robert Taylor is gloriously handsome, known for his perfect profile, resonant speaking voice, and charming presence. I have never considered him much of an actor, but he was my mother's favorite, and I watch him every time he's on TCM in her honor. He holds the record for being employed by a studio the longest - 24 years with MGM, until it dissolved, and went on to more films, a successful television show, and he replaced Ronald Reagan on Death Valley Days. Irene Dunne gives a lovely performance without histrionics or being overdone in any way. Good movie? For what it is, yes.

Magnificent Obsession concerns a reckless playboy named Merrick, who drowns and is resuscitated with equipment that might have saved the elderly doctor to whom it belonged. Falling in love with the doctor's beautiful young wife, who hates the very thought of him, he learns the reason for her love of the man who died...a philosophy of helping other people, without ever letting them know. When the women loses her sight in a car accident, Merrick takes advantage of her blindness by befriending her. Pretending to be a doctor, he determines to become a surgeon to restore her vision at the risk of losing her love.

**SPOILERS*** In what turned out to be the breakout movie for a 24 year old Robert Taylor like it was 20 years later for another Hollywood heartthrob Rock Hudson "Magnificent Obsession" shows that no matter how spoiled and rotten one is there's always hope when one finally sees the light of goodness through unselfish love and giving to other without wanting anything in return. This is the golden rule that Doctor Hudson lived as well as died by. Hudson suffering a heart attack while taking his morning swim died before he could get help to save his life. The defibrillator that could have saved Dr. Hudson's life was at the time being used to save that good for nothing spoiled brat Robert Merrick, Robert Taylor. It was Merrick who after a night of partying and getting himself good and smashed ended up felling into the lake almost drowning himself! Why a man like Dr. Hudson who unselfishly saved hundreds of lives without even asking them to pay their, or his, doctors bills had to die so that a low down no good partying skunk like Merrick survived is the basis of the film "Magnificent Obsession". It was in Merrick meeting Dr. Hudson's distraught young wife, some 20 years his Junior, Helen (Irene Dunne) and later due to his fun loving and irresponsible nature had her lose her sight in a traffic accident that turn the young man completely around. It was the late Dr. Hudson mentor sculpture and philosopher Mr. Randolph, Ralph Morgan, who put, in bringing the very best out of him, the drunk and confused young man on the road to redemption. Great five handkerchief Hollywood tearjerker with an unbelievingly tall dark and handsome Robert Taylor giving one of his best performances as the spoiled and later guilt ridden and saint-like Robert Merrick. It was Mr. Randolph was gave Merrick the will to overcame his demons in causing Mrs. Hudson, who held him responsible for her husbands death, blindness with what at the time he thought was his harmless boyish antics! Telling Merrick to give to others and not ask for nothing in return in fact was the reason that caused Mrs. Hudson her sight. In Merrick at first using Mr. Randolph rock hard philosophy on life to his advantage! ***SPOILERS*** Now a completely changed man Merrick went the whole nine yards and even farther to not only win the blind Mrs. Hudson's heart but restore her sight by attending and graduating medical school, at the top of his class, in order for him to do it! It took everything that he had, money time as well as his health, for Robert Merrick to achieve all this but it was well worth it to both him Mrs. Hudson and all those he helped along the way in restoring her lost sight that he was responsible for. Robert Merrick was totally obsessed in his redeeming himself by restoring Mrs. Hudson's sight! And that turned out to be not a lost caused, like the top eye specialists from all over Europe told him that it was, but an ten year obsession on his part. And as things were to turn out Robert Merrick's "Maginfient Obsession" in the end became a solid reality!

I saw this movie only once while in high school, many years ago. I have many times seen the Rock Hudson/Jane Wyman version and re-watch it, just because the story is so good in its purest form. The RH and JW version is truly sappy, and must have been one of the top ten to help coin the phrase "Chick Flick". The story is so much better told through it's literature, but like so many, I love to see literature come to life, and see if the Director and Producers have any likenesses to my own imagination. Lloyd C Douglas was a dear man, I'm sure, as an author I found him a bit sophomoric, but nonetheless, enjoyable. His others books, are in the same vein, and worth reading, especially "White Banners", which is also made into a film, with the same overtones as "Magnificent Obsession". Another one of his books worth noting, is "Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal", which isn't a true sequel, but sheds light on the theory that lights M.O.'s fire.

This Movie is just great! A must see movie! The actors and actress play their rolls very well, unlike today's movie which rely very heavily on special effects, or funny dialogue. The story is well written, and keeps you guessing to what happens next! I wish I could get it on DVD!!! I hope someone will restore it! This movie will be loved for generations to come. I could watch this movie over, and over again, and never get tired of it. Magnificent Obsession is one of those movies that you would love to watch with your significant other. Robert Merrick (Robert Taylor) recklessly cause the blindness of Helen Hudson (Irene Dunne). He spends years becoming a doctor, and becoming the best in his field, all in the hopes of correcting his past!

Magnificent Obsession - 1935 I've probably watched Universal's 1954 version of Magnificent Obsession 25 times while researching the movies made in the San Bernardino mountains. This is one of those films where there can be no doubt about its location, Lake Arrowhead. But I have always had my doubt about the original 1935 version as ever having been made in the mountains, even though one of the Captain's of the Arrowhead Queen unequivocally stated that he had heard it had been filmed at Lake Arrowhead. In my research over the years, I had never been able to ascertain one way or the other until August, 2000 at the U.C.L.A. Film Archives. The most pleasant surprise is that there is at least one identifiable scene with Lake Arrowhead in the background - including a speedboat cruising across the lake. It is a very brief scene and by far and away, the majority of the film is shot in a studio. Another equally pleasant surprise is a very young (23) Robert Taylor playing a sophisticated playboy (#1) and then an older doctor (#2) and pulling it off believably. His maturity and acting ability are evident from the first frame. Irene Dunne, who was 7 years older, is an accomplished and polished actress with only a few groans to show for her effort. (Her groping blind scenes leave you exasperated.) Comic relief is supplied by an aged Charles Butterworth, as an unlikely suitor to a very young Betty Furness, the step-daughter of Ms. Dunne. This is not the soapy Universal version done later by Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman, but a thoughtful, intelligent script that is closer to the original Lloyd C. Douglas novel, who just happened to be the screenwriter on this version. The print of the 1935 version is very dark and will probably never be shown again in public unless a restoration effort is made. Unfortunately, there are too many films to restore and only so much money available.

Out of curiosity, I chose to look out this movie immediately after viewing the Douglas Sirk-directed 1950's remake to contrast and compare different obsessions you might say. I have to say right at the outset that it's really no contest. With his flair for composition, narrative flow and ability to coax the best out of his actors Sirk wins hands down. It probably doesn't help that I'm no fan of Robert Taylor which no doubt stems from my perception of his part in the Hollywood blacklist hearings of the 1940s and '50s (c.f. John Wayne, Adolphe Menjou, Ronald Reagan and others) but for the first half of the movie his acting is so highly mannered and gauche to the point of being look-away bad. Irene Dunne on the other hand attempts to sail serenely through in her part of the grieving widow and later blinded victim of Taylor's Bob Merrick's ham-fisted attempt to woo her, but she comes across as too cold and privileged to make you care much for her character. As for her daughter-in-law and her hapless older husband, they appear hopelessly mismatched with the latter in particular appearing to be cast purely for some misguided comic relief. I found the direction to be slow and laboured with lots of slow dissolves, lingering close-ups, overt religiosity and forced humour, while, as indicated, most of the acting seems stagey and overplayed. Once Taylor settles down to his magnificent obsession the film does play a bit better but without someone like Sirk to recognise the story for the glorified, at times sanctified soap opera that it really is and treat it accordingly with velvet gloves, the story in director John M Stahl's hands, plods along somewhat aimlessly rather like Dunne with her affliction. For my sins I'm going to look out director Stahl's other Sirk-reworked movie "Imitation Of Life", also starring Dunne, but with some trepidation after enduring this rather stiff and hackneyed production.

I am re-reviewing this film after watching both versions of the film. I note that many prefer this version of the film, rather than the Rock Hudson/Jane Wyman version. I liked them both equally well, and each had its strengths and weaknesses. One of the real weaknesses in this version, which is fixed in the 1954 version is the scene here were Taylor's compatriot falls into a sewer. This film is not about humor. It is about moral character and redemption. It was a totally inappropriate scene. Irene Dunne is superb here. But Jane Wyman was superb in the remake. While Robert Taylor is not one of my particular favorites, he was a fine actor and made some great films; he was fine here. Rock Hudson was equally fine in the remake. My advice is to savor the good aspects of both films, and both are available in the same Criterion package.