Not quite as heart-wrenching as the original version, this remake is still pretty good and does benefit from being filmed in color. Wyman is Helen Phillips, a blind woman, and Hudson is Bob Merrick, the cad who becomes her savior. Merrick is partly responsible for the accidental death of
Helen's husband, a man who was revered in the community as a combination of Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey, and every other angel of mercy ever seen. After the doctor's demise, Bob attempts to apologize, and Helen, avoiding him, is blinded in an accident. With Rudolph (Kruger), a friend of the late, great
physician, egging him on, Bob forsakes his wastrel ways and decides to dedicate himself to medicine. Without revealing his true identity, he contacts Helen, and their relationship soon becomes a loving one. When she finds out who he is, she departs. Much later, though, Bob is given an incredible
opportunity to save Helen and redeem himself for his past peccadilloes.
A film requiring as many Kleenex as you can spare, this unabashed appeal to the tear ducts does not fail in its efforts. Director Douglas Sirk made only a few more films before retiring to Munich in 1959, just before he turned 60. He brings to this effort the same combination of overblown,
indulgent melodramatics and distanced perspective which would mark his masterpiece, IMITATION OF LIFE. Notable also as the film which really put Rock Hudson on top and gave the first inklings that he might be able to act if sufficiently prodded, MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION really relies on Wyman's
womanly, Oscar-nominated assurance to put this stuff over. leave a comment