Magnificent Obsession

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 mans wife, Helen Phillips (Jane Wyman), refuses to accept Bobs 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 youre 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 Universals big-budget "weepers" of the 1950s.

Upplagd i sortimentet: 15 April, 2009