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 Phillips | Barbara Rush |
| Nancy Ashford | Agnes Moorehead |
| Randolph | Otto Krüger |
| Tom Masterson | Gregg Palmer |
| Valerie | Sara Shane |
| Dr. Girsud | Paul Cavanagh |
| Judy | Judy Nugent |
Credits
| Director | Douglas Sirk |
| Producer | Ross Hunter |
| Screenplay | Robert Blees, Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Herman |
| Based on the novel by | Lloyd C. Douglas |
| Adaptation by | Wells Root |
| Cinematography | Russell Metty |
| Editing | Milton Carruth |
| Music | Frank Skinner |
| Costume design | Bill Thomas |
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
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by Mark Rappaport
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