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Magnificent Obsession (DVD 2008, Criterion Collection) is a great collection of the 1954 Magnificent Obsession and 1935 Magnificent Obsession. Also some gems of special editions (supplements) include interviews with Douglas Sirk (disc 1), and filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow and Allison Anders. This is a special story with great character dynamics, in both the 1954 and 1935 film.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Douglas Sirk. Soap opera in a high style and in glorious Technicolor … perhaps delirious is the word. On the surface and depending on your sensibilities, it is either a drama of overwhelming passion or a now hilarious 1950s tear-jerker. Below the surface, rather different things are stirring. I think Roger Ebert is right that a Douglas Sirk movie requires greater viewer sophistication than an Ingmar Bergman movie where the themes are stated openly. A respected doctor dies when the resuscitator that might have saved him is being used on a young man Robert Merrick (Rock Hudson) in a foolish accident of his own making. The man later inadvertently causes the wife, Helen, (Jane Wyman) of the late doctor to become blind. The man then redeems himself adopting the doctor’s quasi Christian philosophy and becoming a brilliant surgeon … and so it goes. I am not sure how much this is a “Douglas Sirk” movie. Certainly the “look” is Sirk, but the opportunities for him to undermine the story may have been more limited. He seems to have had a problem with the Lloyd C Douglas’s novel finding it “confused”. His influence on the script was limited given that it was largely defined by the original novel, the previous John Stahl movie and Jane Wyman for whom this was to be a vehicle. He could not make a “Written on the Wind” out of it. Nevertheless, picking at the threads reveals some interesting things. The lighting in the doctor’s office from which Helen is running the hospital is very dim, expressing Helen’s inability to see the doctor’s philosophy, her blindness to the true goodness within Robert and presaging the actual blindness that she will later suffer. In a shared reading of the newspaper funnies, the now blind Helen has only the word “Ugh” (mock Indian speak) to say, while her two sighted friends have dialogue to recite. Helen is not only blind but inarticulate. A mock witch burning to bring a good harvest suggests the mediaeval superstition of a European culture that has failed to restore Helen’s eyesight. It is the American Robert applying scientific Christian charity who is her saviour. All these scenes are different from their counterparts in the 1935 John Stahl directed version (also on this Criterion edition), so I assume here at least we are seeing the Douglas Sirk influence. All of which is meant to say that this movie delighted me.Read full review
I am now over 80. I read the book while in college at age 19. It is a recipe for success in life. Giving to deserving others but getting no credit.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
So thankful for getting both of theses dvds. There is no comparison in my opinion. The original 1935 movie with Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor is a 1000 per cent a better movie. Thank you for offering these together.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Criterion restoration is excellent. Plus 30s version is rare and included on 2nd disc.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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