Magnificent Obsession
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 a beloved local doctor has a heart attack and dies waiting for the lifesaving 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.
TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary from 2008 featuring film scholar Thomas Doherty
- Magnificent Obsession, John M. Stahl’s 1935 adaptation of the same novel, newly restored
- From UFA to Hollywood: Douglas Sirk Remembers (1991), a documentary by Eckhart Schmidt
- Interview from 2009 with screenwriter Robert Blees
- Interviews from 2008 with filmmakers Allison Anders and Kathryn Bigelow, in which they pay tribute to director Douglas Sirk
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien
Cover based on a theatrical poster
TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary from 2008 featuring film scholar Thomas Doherty
- Magnificent Obsession, John M. Stahl’s 1935 adaptation of the same novel, newly restored
- From UFA to Hollywood: Douglas Sirk Remembers (1991), a documentary by Eckhart Schmidt
- Interview from 2009 with screenwriter Robert Blees
- Interviews from 2008 with filmmakers Allison Anders and Kathryn Bigelow, in which they pay tribute to director Douglas Sirk
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien
Cover based on a theatrical poster
Cast
- Jane Wyman
- Helen Phillips
- Rock Hudson
- Bob Merrick
- Barbara Rush
- Joyce Phillips
- Agnes Moorehead
- Nancy Ashford
- Otto Kruger
- Randolph
- Gregg Palmer
- Tom Masterson
- Sara Shane
- Valerie
- Paul Cavanagh
- Dr. Giraud
- Judy Nugent
- Judy
- George Lynn
- Williams
- Richard H. Cutting
- Dr. Dodge
- Robert B. Williams
- Sergeant Burnham
- Will White
- Sergeant Ames
- Helen Kleeb
- Mrs. Eden
Credits
- Director
- Douglas Sirk
- Produced by
- Ross Hunter
- Screenplay by
- Robert Blees
- Based on the screenplay by
- Sarah Y. Mason
- Based on the screenplay by
- Victor Heerman
- Based on the novel by
- Lloyd C. Douglas
- Adaptation by
- Wells Root
- Director of photography
- Russell Metty
- Film editing by
- Milton Carruth
- Original music by
- Frank Skinner
- Costume design by
- Bill Thomas