Magnificent Obsession (1954)

Director: Douglas Sirk                                   Writer: Robert Blees
Film Score: Frank Skinner                             Cinematography: Russell Metty
Starring: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Otto Kruger and Agnes Moorehead

Originally my criteria for determining bad films is that they fail to meet expectations somehow so, technically, Magnificent Obsession doesn’t really fit because it was exactly what I thought it would be. But there is still a lot to discuss about it and so I wanted to post anyway. The first of two films in which they would appear in together, the unlikely pairing of Rock Hudson with Jane Wyman never really works. There’s an uncomfortable aspect to his pursuit of her that feels like an undercurrent of ulterior motive that was never going to be exposed. Perhaps it’s because of the very apparent age difference of the stars on screen, or simply because of Hudson’s later homosexual revelation, but it never seems believable.

Then there’s the story. It’s a remake of the 1935 melodrama starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor that has a spoiled, rich bachelor who indirectly kills a woman’s husband, blinds her, then falls in love with her, eventually becoming a doctor and curing her. Oddly enough, that’s not the most bothersome part. Also at work in the screenplay is the spiritual law of attraction that has lured so many people into its orbit. The brilliant Otto Kruger tells Hudson that in order to be happy he has to give away everything he has, but anonymously, to people in need. Hudson is not nearly as dubious as he should be and eventually goes along with the scheme, with obvious results. And while Kruger urges him that it will never work if he is simply looking to get something out of it . . . well, that’s the whole point. The “law” of attraction is just spiritual materialism, greed in another guise. And that gives the picture yet another layer of unsettling undercurrent.

The film is shot in typical 50s big-budget color, super saturating everything on screen until it all looks like an airbrushed picture postcard from . . . the 50s. And as melodramatic as the acting and the story are, the film score is even worse. Frank Skinner’s syrupy strings and cloying choir intrude at every possible moment, beating the audience over the head with his baton. Now, I love Skinner’s early work on Universal’s horror films, Sherlock Holmes series, and Hitchcock’s Saboteur, but this is dreck. In addition to Kruger, the great Agnes Moorehead is on hand, but in her role as a nurse and glorified housekeeper she is really wasted. The only bright spot other than Kruger is Judy Nugent as the young girl who befriends Wyman, and Barbara Rush in one of her early performances.

In many ways it’s a typical 50s film but the story is just so weak and predictable that it goes nowhere. For me, it's reminiscent of the blandness and unbelievability of Stanley Kramer's first film, Not as a Stranger. Hudson and Wyman’s next film, All That Heaven Allows, is much better both thematically and in it’s recognition of the age difference between the two stars. But Magnificent Obsession is simply too pedestrian to merit much attention. The only Academy Award nomination came for Jane Wyman’s performance. Other than that, the film was ignored, with good reason.