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Release Date: 2009-01-20
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| Features• Reckless playboy Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson, in his breakthrough role) crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town's only resuscitator--at the very moment that beloved local Dr. Phillips has a heart attack and dies waiting for the life-saving device. Thus begins one of Douglas Sirk's most flamboyant masteres in melodrama, a delirious Technicolor mix of the sudsy and th
Rock Hudson rocks!......I know he fell out of favor a long time ago especially with his AIDS diagnosis, but in his day, he was as good a romantic lead as was Cary Grant. This movie showed that. He was the ultimate in romantic leadership with Jane Wyman as his leading lady. She played a blind woman whom Rock Hudson fell in love with after causing her blindness. She fell in love with him without knowing he was the one responsible. A tear-jerker for sure, but with a great ending.
Magnificent ObsessionThe movie is wonderful and I recevied it within the quoted timeframe and in wonderful condition.
4-5 stars but not in germanI've seen this film on DVD and VHS many many times. Have hankies
handy.
I am not going to give a full review. Too many other have.
The film information states the VHS audio tracks are English and
German. This is not true. I have only come across DVD and VHS
versions in English. There is no German audio. The score is very
tear jerking. The movie is either 4 or 5**** depending on how much
you believe Wyman's transformation can occur. The other actress
is terrific. I highly recommend this to anyone who has a touch
of romance in their blood. But, keep Kleenix or hankies handy.
Dr. Alan Kardoff, Florida
TWO versions of the film are hereThis review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film
Magnificent Obsession, directed by Douglas Sirk, is a gem of the 1950's and one of numerous films Sirk directed that star Rock Hudson.
Magnificent Obsession is about a daredevil boater named Bob Merrick who is injured and needs a resuscitating machine to revive him after a near drowning. The machine was borrowed from a man who needed it for his heart condition. He suffers an attack while it is being borrowed and dies. The man's widow Helen, blames Bob for her husband's death and she is later blinded in an accident caused by him. They later meet again and fall in love when he disguises his voice and she thinks he is someone else.
The film is based on a novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. The DVD includes the 1935 version of the film which is also very good.
Disc one contains the film with optional audio commentary by film scholar Thomas Doherty, a theatrical trailer and interviews with Allison Anders and Kathryn Bigelow.
Disc two contains the 1935 version of the film and an 82 minute interview with Douglas Sirk. The interview is in German with subtitles.
I found both versions of the film to be very good and I highly recommend this DVD set.
"I'll Have a Douglas Sirk Burger...I give this set five stars for the 1954 version only. The 1935 version gets two stars in my book. The earlier version contains flat direction from John M. Stahl that doesn't exploit the potential of it's tear jerker story. Robert Taylor's spoiled playboy comes off as affected and boring. There's zip chemistry between he and Irene Dunne which is odd considering they were close in age. Possible reasons may be that Dunne's character is horribly underwritten. I also knock it down a notch for the alleged comic relief offered by the insufferable Arthur Treacher in another cliched butler role. The 1954 version directed by Douglas Sirk grabs the gusto. Sirk pushes all the right buttons and gets all the juice out of what could be potentially mawkish material. He's abetted by terrific lead performances from Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman who project palpable romantic chemistry despite the obvious age disparity between the two. It also doesn't hurt to have the terrific Agnes Moorehead in the cast. This set is essential for the 1954 version with the 1935 version a mere curio that doesn't diminish the package's power.
Product DescriptionReckless playboy Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson, in his breakthrough role) crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town s only resuscitator at the very moment that beloved local Dr. Phillips has a heart attack and dies waiting for the life-saving device. Thus begins one of Douglas Sirk's most flamboyant master classes in melodrama, a delirious Technicolor mix of the sudsy and the spiritual in which Bob and the doctor s widow, Helen (Jane Wyman), find themselves inextricably linked to one another amid a series of increasingly wild twists, turns, trials, and tribulations. For this release, Criterion also presents John M. Stahl's 1935 film version of the Lloyd C. Douglas novel, starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor.
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary featuring film scholar Thomas Doherty
Magnificent Obsession (1935, 102 minutes): a new digital transfer of John M. Stahl s complete earlier version of the film
Douglas Sirk: From UFA to Hollywood (1991): a rare 80-minute documentary by German filmmaker Eckhart Schmidt in which Sirk reflects upon his career
Video interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Kathryn Bigelow, paying tribute to Sirk
Theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Geoffrey O Brien
Amazon.comRock Hudson became a beefcake star playing a self-absorbed, thrill-chasing millionaire playboy in the first of Douglas Sirk's glossy Technicolor melodramas. In a classic example of the wicked machinations of soap opera fate, Hudson's showboating antics kill the most saintly man in motion-picture history and stalk his newlywed widow (Jane Wyman), driving her into an accident that leaves her blind. The kindly attentions of a bohemian painter and part-time guardian angel help turn Hudson's life around, and he rejects his irresponsible lifestyle and dedicates himself to his new "magnificent obsession" of philanthropy and good deeds, meanwhile romancing Wyman in a sincere, soft-spoken voice and with a phony name. Magnificent Obsession was a huge success and established a style Sirk would refine through the 1950s, reaching a baroque peak in Written on the Wind and culminating with what may be his most successful and most famous film, Imitation of Life. Compared to his later successes, this is arch and flat, lacking the ironic edge and luscious style of his best films, but it's an exceedingly handsome production in bold, bright colors where swooning romance and life-saving operations define life as an emotional roller coaster of mythic proportions. --Sean Axmaker
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