Magnificent Obsession (1954)
Directed by Douglas Sirk

Film Review

Magnificent Obsession is the film that marked the beginning of the artistic highpoint of Douglas Sirk's period in Hollywood, one of his lush melodramas that would ultimately earn him the reputation of one of the most gifted filmmakers of the 1950s.  It was also the film that made Rock Hudson an overnight star, offering him his first substantial role, playing opposite Jane Wyman,  the former wife of a certain lesser-known actor named Ronald Regan.  The film was based on a novel of the same title by Lloyd C. Douglas, which had previously been adapted as a 1935 film directed by John M. Stahl and starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor.

Although he excelled with this kind of highly sentimentalised romantic melodrama, Douglas Sirk had a certain amount of ambivalence for the genre, admitting that he had some difficulty reconciling the artistic potential of cinema with the kitsch absurdity of the popular weepie.  In a published interview with Jon Halliday (Sirk on Sirk, 1971), he stated: "There is a very short distance between high art and trash, and trash that contains the element of craziness is by this very quality nearer to art."  This insightful aphorism pretty well sums up the essential dichotomy in Sirk's cinema, and it contains some truth as to why critical recognition for his work was a long time coming.  It is perhaps far harder to see genius in something that has popular mass appeal than in something that will engage the interest of a mere handful of fastidious critics.  The films of Douglas Sirk represent a kind of subversion of the art of cinema.  Here we find intelligence, humanity and artistic flair, wrapped in layers of surface banality that bring mass appeal - not unlike the intricate inner workings of a pretty but tawdrily decorated clock.

The dialectic that is central to most of Sirk's cinema - the notion of high art versus crowd-pleasing trash - is readily apparent in Magnificent Obsession.  It is a film which has just about the most implausible plot and characters that you can imagine, and yet it a film that is so masterfully composed that you can easily overlook this as a minor blemish.  Beneath the saccharine surface impression, it is not too difficult to see the intensely ironic portrait of American society that Sirk is painting - the delusion that money alone can solve all of life's problems, that the accumulation and enjoyment of wealth should be the first priority for any good American citizen.  With its allusions to self-sacrifice and serving others for the good of society, Magnificent Obsession is a powerful assertion of the Christian message, although, at the time of its first release, it could just as easily have been interpreted as having a Socialist, even pro-Communist, agenda.

There is no denying it, Magnificent Obsession is schmaltz.  But it is good wholesome schmaltz of the highest order - one that will pummel and rip at your heart strings with the assiduous ferocity of a half-starved falcon alighting on a tasty field mouse.  There is hardly a scene in this film which doesn't strike some deep emotional chord, and there are a fair number which are guaranteed to flood the tear ducts of the most stoical spectator.  It is not easy to say why the film, has such a strong emotional impact.  The performances are effective but not exceptional; the dialogue is poignant but hardly profound; the plot is moving but egregiously contrived.  Thematically, it is far from being Sirk's most sophisticated film.  Yet there is something magical in the way in which this film has been crafted - its direction, its photography, its editing - that allows it to transcend the third rate, imbuing it with a raw humanity which will stir the soul of anyone who watches it.  Just as the simple beauty of a sunset may make you cry, so will this film have you reaching for the Kleenex - by the handful.  If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

Film Synopsis

Bob Merrick is the archetypal rich playboy, selfishly squandering his time and his money in reckless leisure pursuits.  One day, he comes close to drowning himself whilst chasing records in his souped-up speedboat.  He is saved by a resuscitator borrowed from a local doctor, Wayne Phillips.  By a quirk of fate, the latter dies from a fatal heart attack which the same resuscitator may have prevented.   Phillips's death is a shock not only to his wife Helen and daughter Joyce but to the many who have benefited from his philanthropic acts.  Merrick tries to make amends, but Helen rejects his offer of money.  He then meets an artist, Edward Randolph, who has been inspired by Phillips's philosophy of life, which is based on selfless altruism.  Realising that he has fallen in love with Helen, Merrick tries to apply the same philosophy, but with disastrous results.  As she repulses Merrick, Helen is hit by a passing car and suffers a head injury that robs her of her sight.  Merrick is so moved by this outcome that he feels compelled to devote his life to Helen.  But can she ever accept kindness from the man who caused the death of her husband?