Magnificent Obsession (1954)

Synopsis: Rock Hudson bursts through the screen as reckless playboy Bob Merrick in Douglas Sirk's MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION. He creams across a lake at 150 miles per hour in a brightly painted speedboat. Merrick's haughty indulgence sets off a... Rock Hudson bursts through the screen as reckless playboy Bob Merrick in Douglas Sirk's MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION. He creams across a lake at 150 miles per hour in a brightly painted speedboat. Merrick's haughty indulgence sets off a fantastically spectacular chain of tragic events that will transform him and all of those around him. When the speedboat jaunt ends in an accident, Merrick must be resuscitated using the town's only life-saving mechanism, and as a consequence, leaving the saintly local surgeon, Dr. Philips, to die of a heart attack at his stately villa across the lake. When Merrick learns of his part in the doctor's death, he makes a half-hearted attempt to square things with the devastated widow, Helen (Jane Wyman). However, his careless ham-fisted apologies accidentally cause an accident that leaves Helen completely blind. Under the sure, visionary hand of master melodramatist Sirk, these sprawling, high-pitched coincidences congeal to create a stunning window into the morals and mysteries of the American family and value system. Merrick's trail towards redemption by way of a mysterious brand of Christian philanthropy engenders the "Magnificent Obsession" of the title, as he embarks on a desperate study of medicine in order to cure Helen's blindness and hopefully atone for a life's worth of sins. [More]

Starring: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, Otto Kruger

Starring: Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, Otto Kruger, Agnes Moorehead, Gregg Palmer, Sara Shane, Paul Cavanagh

Director: Douglas Sirk

Director: Douglas Sirk
Screenwriter: Robert Blees, Wells Root
Producer: Ross Hunter
Composer: Frank Skinner

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