Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Hitchcoc The whole plot to this thing is so contrived that from the get go it's not going to work. A man gets saved from a reckless act at the expense of another man's life. He then woos the guys widow. Filled with guilt he goes to medical school. He begins to learn about things she can do to help others. The wife goes blind. Hmmmm! I wonder what is going to happen. The thing that is missing is the ability to bring the husband back from the dead. I know I'm being sarcastic, but there are so many lame plotting contrivances and virtual impossibilities here, and the sappy conclusion. I'm sure this all played well with people who want a happy ending at all costs, including believability. Rock Hudson was a handsome guy and Jane Wyman was also a good actress. Too hokey for my tastes, however.

wes-connors Handsomely reckless sportsman Rock Hudson (as Robert "Bob" Merrick) crashes his speedboat and survives, miraculously unscratched. However, Mr. Hudson's medical treatment inadvertently contributes to the death of a beloved doctor. It doesn't seem fair that a hero (Dr. Phillips) dies while a heel (Mr. Hudson) is saved. The good doctor's widow Jane Wyman (as Helen) becomes acquainted with Hudson and rejects his amorous advances. Hudson decides to change his ways by secretly doing good deeds. Despite his handsomeness and wealth, Ms. Wyman continues to spurn Hudson. His "Magnificent Obsession" with Wyman leads Hudson to make another tragic event occur, but love could eventually conquer all...Producer Ross Hunter delivered the goods and director Douglas Sirk turned some silly soap operas into high cinematic art. With this one, Mr. Sirk is very much like a painter, brushing light and shadows across the screen. Watching the movement of characters and cameras will reveal additional brush strokes. The characters are always doing something. Nobody has to just stand there and say their lines, which is nice for those on both sides of the screen. It's all so smooth, even when Hudson drunkenly holds up the "DANGER" sign for the wide screen camera before bonding with philosophical pipe-holder Otto Kruger (as Edward "Ed" Randolph). And, it's pleasingly ludicrous, although the final quarter is a bit less artful.******** Magnificent Obsession (4/20/54) Douglas Sirk ~ Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, Agnes Moorehead

JLRMovieReviews Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman star in Magnificent Obsession, a remake of an Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor film. Both movies in fact catapulted their male stars into stardom. Before their respective films, neither Hudson or Taylor had been a household name. I am not prepared to discuss the differences, as I haven't seen the older version recently. But in this film, Rock plays an obnoxious, rich, and reckless bachelor, known for his frivolous lifestyle and his lack of regard for anyone else. When a skiing accident causes him to need a resuscitator, one is taken from the home of local doctor, who has it for a heart condition, and therefore it is not at the house when the kind doctor has a heart attack. Therefore the life of a self-absorbed bachelor was saved, instead of a doctor who saves lives. This point is brought up 4 or 5 times in the first 30 minutes. When he tries to apologize to the doctor's widow, Jane Wyman, another accident happens. From there on, it swerves into left field and goes beyond the point of no return with developments and contrivances to prolong the film and defy logic. To explain any details would be too exacting. But for all the grade-A production values that producer Ross Hunter and director Douglas Sirk use in retelling this story, basically I just don't buy it, or buy into it. I think the far-fetchedness of it is what I don't buy, plus some of its over-the-top acting and dramatics and corny dialogue in parts. Most of the acting I'm referring to Barbara Rush's performance as Jane's stepdaughter, in the first half of the film. But, Ms. Wyman's performance was very restrained and she was Oscar-nominated for it. And, Rock gives a very earnest try in his performance. In the commentary of this film, they mention that "Written on the Wind," another Hunter/Sirk film, is regarded as the most overblown film of theirs, but I think this has to be the second. Then, there's the philosophy of the kind doctor, in helping his patients and asking nothing in return for it and to keep it secret. While this is basically a Christian attitude that should be more prevalent today, it doesn't come across as real or genuine here; instead it comes across as forced and hokey. Otto Kruger is a believer of it and was a good friend of the deceased, and thought he was a wonderful man. And, character actress Agnes Moorehead's presence gives the film a little more credence. With all these comments thrown in, where are we now? I felt overall that the film was artificial and manipulative and therefore I was not emotionally invested in the characters; in consequence I don't think it's the great film it's purported to be. But I will give it a '7' (I think I'm being kind for doing so) for good actors on the whole who weren't given a very credible story for the viewers to accept.

mark.waltz Because now we've got Technicolor, Widescreen, Ross Hunter, Douglas Sirk, and more importantly, Rock Hudson. He takes on the practically impossible task of playing this sinner-to-saint transformation, and almost makes it work, if not totally. Jane Wyman lacks the youthful effervescence of Irene Dunne from the original, but gives a beautifully restrained performance nonetheless. Otto Kruger expands on Ralph Morgan's role of the artist (here a painter instead of a sculptor) who expresses the film's moral.This being a soap opera like premise, it is more than appropriate that the film focuses on two "Guiding Light's", Kruger and the compassionate nurse, played her by Agnes Moorehead who fortunately gets to be somewhat tough in her duties, yet kindly compassionate under that Endora red hair of hers. Barbara Rush adds some more layers to the sweetness of her stepdaughter character.Hudson and Wyman at first seem an odd couple to be paired with in a spiritual secret storm mean to give the matinée ladies a good cry away from the daily viewings of "Love of Life" and "Search For Tomorrow", and the film rises above the stories clichés. Made on the success of another film version of a Lloyd C. Douglas novel ("The Robe"), this takes the life lesson of being kind and helpful to strangers without expecting anything back in return to a modern level. It utilizes beautiful locations and a lush musical score to flesh out its already melodramatic tale. In an era of exotic beauties like Monroe, Taylor, Loren and Lollobrigida (or down home girls like Doris Day), Wyman's box-office success with this is a nice reflection on the 1950's environment where a box in a living room was sometimes keeping people from going to the movies, except, like in the case of this movie, when they really had something worth going to.