Magnificent Obsession

Douglas Sirk

United States

1954

108 minutes

Color

2.00:1

English

457

Synopsis

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 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.

Cast

Helen Phillips Jane Wyman
Bob Merrick Rock Hudson
Joyce PhillipsBarbara Rush
Nancy Ashford Agnes Moorehead
RandolphOtto Krüger
Tom Masterson Gregg Palmer
ValerieSara Shane
Dr. Girsud Paul Cavanagh
JudyJudy Nugent

Credits

DirectorDouglas Sirk
ProducerRoss Hunter
ScreenplayRobert Blees, Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Herman
Based on the novel byLloyd C. Douglas
Adaptation by Wells Root
CinematographyRussell Metty
EditingMilton Carruth
MusicFrank Skinner
Costume designBill Thomas

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • Audio commentary featuring film scholar Thomas Doherty
  • Magnificent Obsession (1935, 102 minutes), a new digital transfer of John M. Stahl’s earlier version of the film
  • From UFA to Hollywood: Douglas Sirk Remembers (1991, 82 minutes), a rare documentary by German filmmaker Eckhart Schmidt in which Sirk reflects upon his career
  • Video interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Kathryn Bigelow, in which they pay tribute to Sirk
  • Theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien

From the Current

PRESS NOTES: AUTHOR! AUTHOR!

Feb 1, 2009

“By now, the lesson of Douglas Sirk should be clear,” writes David Zuckerman in his auteurist review of our new special edition of Magnificent Obsession, for Film Comment: “an auteur is to be measured not . . .

The Sirk-Hudson Connection

by Mark Rappaport Jan 21, 2009

It’s a clichéd truism that moviemaking is a collaborative art. Of course it is, and there are dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of directors working time and again with the same crew members, trusted writers, cameramen, production designers, editors, even costume designers, to prove it. We . . .

Magnificent Obsessions

by Geoffrey O’Brien Jan 19, 2009

In 1929, a fifty-one-year-old Congregationalist pastor named Lloyd C. Douglas published his first novel. It was a ramshackle sort of book, at its core an . . .

New York Times Holiday DVD Picks

Oct 30, 2008

This week, the New York Times compiled its special annual holiday movie preview, and judging by Charles Taylor and Stephanie Zacharek’s enthusiasm for a slew of upcoming . . .

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Available Editions

Magnificent Obsession Criterion DVD Add to Cart

DVD

2 Discs

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price

$31.96