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Magnificent Obsession (1935)

 Starring Irene Dunne, Robert Taylor, Charles Butterworth, Betty Furness, Sara Haden, Ralph 
Morgan
Directed by John M. Stahl

Print: black/white
Runtime: 112 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

A man who has ruined a woman's life attempts to make good on his debt to her (and his 
conscience) in this sudsy drama based on a best-selling novel by Lloyd C. Douglas. Bobby 
Merrick (Robert Taylor) is an alcoholic ne'er-do-well whose recklessness causes the death 
of Dr. Hudson, a respected physician. Helen Hudson (Irene Dunne), the doctor's widow, 
turns away from Merrick's apology, only to walk into traffic. She's struck by a car and 
blinded. Shaken by the tragic events, Merrick gives up alcohol and begins studying to 
become a doctor and right the wrong he's done to Helen. As he begins spending time at the 
family's estate through a mutual friend, Helen grows fond of his frequent visits, and they 
begin to fall in love. However, when Helen learns that Merrick is responsible for her 
husband's death and her own accident, she moves away to a place where he cannot find 
her. In time, Merrick becomes a gifted eye surgeon, and he learns that he could restore 
Helen's sight with a delicate and dangerous operation that he has never performed before. 
Magnificent Obsession was a box-office success that spawned a 1954 remake directed by 
Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman.




Magnificent Obsession (1954)

Starring Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Otto Kruger, Barbara Rush
Directed by Douglas Sirk

Print: color
Runtime: 108 min.
Genre: Drama

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 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.