What's new

t1g3r5fan

Reviewer
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
1,603
Location
Salem, Oregon
Real Name
Mychal Bowden
In the 1950’s, two studios seemed to have a lock in producing melodramatic movies of high quality: 20th Century Fox (Peyton Place being the most notable example) and Universal-International. The latter studio benefited from the presence of Douglas Sirk, a director who began his career in Germany before moving to Hollywood in the 1940’s. It’s here with Magnificent Obsession – a remake of a 1935 film produced by the studio – that Sirk would really hit his stride and become a master of the melodrama. Criterion upgrades their previous DVD release with a brand new Blu-ray release of both the 1935 and 1954 versions of the movie.



Magnificent Obsession (1954)



Released: 07 Aug 1954
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 108 min




Director: Douglas Sirk
Genre: Drama, Romance



Cast: Jane Wyman, Rock...

Continue reading...
 
Last edited:

benbess

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2009
Messages
5,650
Real Name
Ben
Although I've never seen Magnificent Obsession before, I picked it up at the recent sale price of $20. It's really two movies for the price of one, since it includes the 1935 version of the story on a separate disc. I've seen two Douglas Sirk movies previously that I enjoyed—All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life—and so I have hopes for this one. The positive review above helped me press the button to buy it.

For the first few minutes I've watched so far the picture and sound quality are good....

Now that I'm getting close to the end, I can say that the story is certainly quite far-fetched, and yet somehow still compelling if you like this kind of melodrama.

As with Sirk's other movies it's a good idea to keep some Kleenex handy.

poster.jpeg
 
Last edited:

benbess

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2009
Messages
5,650
Real Name
Ben
It was good to read in the booklet essay by Geoffrey O'Brien that comes with this Criterion set that director Douglas Sirk himself said: "This is a damned crazy story if there ever was one." Sirk is also quoted as saying "The angles are the director's thoughts. The lighting is his philosophy."

Anyway, thoughts of realism need to be set aside while watching this almost surreal and sometimes philosophical drama, which is filmed like a luxurious long-form advertisement for the high-end Buick and Mercedes convertibles that appear in the movie. It does make sense that the author of the original novel also wrote The Robe, because at times Magnificent Obsession seems like a companion piece to that movie, just set is the mid-1950s. I like how some movies of this era are about the often arduous struggles to create meaning amidst the suffering in life.

I mostly know Otto Kruger from his role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1942 thriller Saboteur, but here his role is nearly opposite. As O'Brien writes in his essay....

Hudson's drunken encounter with the artist Randolph (Otto Kruger), who indoctrinates him with the late surgeon's secret of spiritual power, is imbued with real mystery, as if some occult transference were occurring before our eyes, an effect encouraged by the somewhat Mephistophelian overtones of Kruger's performance. He is made to seem a messenger between worlds, guiding the otherwise bewildered Hudson along invisible fault lines." And as O'Brien adds in the last sentence of the essay, "And there to send us off is Kruger as the artist Randolph, poised above the operating theater like some supernatural stage manager glancing down...at the theater of the world.

Jane Wyman wanted to have the 1935 movie remade, and she is effective in this melodramatic role. Hudson also does well enough in being stunned at times by what he has done, and you can also see why this role made him a star. The film is vague about time, but the last scenes that have some grey at Hudson's temples and some age make-up around his eyes makes it clear that a number of years have passed.

I can see why some audiences in the 1950s were eager to see these two stars reunited in Sirk's All That Heaven Allows.

Picture quality is good overall, although with a couple of scenes that are less than that.


large_subs_magnificnt_obsession_blu-ry_.jpeg
large_07_magnificent_obsession__.jpeg
large_X__03_magnificent_obsession__.jpeg
 
Last edited:

benbess

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2009
Messages
5,650
Real Name
Ben
It's a challenge for me to try to rate Magnificent Obsession, since its unreality is simultaneously its greatest weakness and its greatest strength. But overall I have a weak spot for movies like this that are almost "so bad they are good," and so my personal rating is a B+. Interesting that Hitchcock's Rear Window opened at exactly the same time and was reviewed side by side in The New York Times.

Trying to make a list of my favorite movies of 1954, I'm finding that most of them are suffused to at least some degree and in some way with the glossy unreality that makes up the fabric of Magnificent Obsession. Magnificent Obsession does make my top 10. Overall, 1954 was a good year for movies, and I doubt there will be the same number of movies released in 2021 that I enjoy as I do the movies from the year of Magnificent Obsession. I do like a lot of the movies coming out now, but.....

my favorite movies from 1954 (as of today)
Rear Window
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
White Christmas
A Star is Born
The Egyptian
Dial M for Murder
Magnificent Obsession
Broken Lance
Garden of Evil
Godzilla/Gojira
Seven Samurai
The Bridges at Toko-Ri
Knock on Wood
Sabrina
Vera Cruz
Brigadoon
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
There's No Business Like Show Business
Them!
Creature from the Black Lagoon
The Far Country
Salt of the Earth
The Barefoot Contessa
On the Waterfront
The Long, Long Trailer
The Caine Mutiny
River of No Return
Johnny Guitar
Hell and High Water
Carmen Jones
The Glenn Miller Story

Screen Shot 2021-11-07 at 6.07.04 AM.png
 
Last edited:

Johnny Angell

Played With Dinosaurs Member
Senior HTF Member
Deceased Member
Joined
Dec 13, 1998
Messages
14,905
Location
Central Arkansas
Real Name
Johnny Angell
I am mixing up this film with another which I thought also starred Hudson and Wyman.
In that one, playboy Hudson causes an auto accident which blinds Wyman. Hudson studies to be a surgeon to cure her. What film is this?
 
Last edited:

benbess

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2009
Messages
5,650
Real Name
Ben
Yes, that's the movie.

I like the homage to Sirk that director Todd Haynes created in the 2002 movie Far From Heaven.

 

benbess

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2009
Messages
5,650
Real Name
Ben
I've heard about this movie for probably about a quarter of a century, and I'm glad I finally saw it. The title takes on a rather different meaning once you've seen the movie, but there is also a song called Magnificent Obsession that was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1958. I don't know if the song was inspired by the hit movie or is just its own thing, but I'm guessing the latter.




By the way, the movie got to 9th place on the box office charts for 1954. And there's this little bit of trivia....

"The film opened at Loew's State Theatre in New York City on August 4, 1954. Audiences were greeted by co-star Agnes Moorehead in the lobby."

Screen Shot 2021-11-08 at 8.56.09 AM.png
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,814
Messages
5,123,656
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top