{"id":21390,"date":"2011-12-21T10:30:32","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T17:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=21390"},"modified":"2020-12-13T15:21:51","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T22:21:51","slug":"magnificent-obsession-1935","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=21390","title":{"rendered":"Magnificent Obsession (1935)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;He&#8217;s dead, I&#8217;m alive &#8212; we&#8217;re both out of luck.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Poster1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Poster1-155x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"155\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-21392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Poster1-155x300.jpg 155w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Poster1-66x128.jpg 66w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Poster1-531x1024.jpg 531w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Poster1.jpg 962w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 155px) 100vw, 155px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA wealthy playboy (Robert Taylor) pursues the beautiful widow (Irene Dunne) of a beloved doctor, accidentally prompting an accident that causes her to lose her sight. He conceals his identity and befriends her as she adapts to a world of blindness; soon the two fall in love.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blindness<\/li>\n<li>Character Arc<\/li>\n<li>Doctors and Nurses<\/li>\n<li>Irene Dunne Films<\/li>\n<li>Robert Taylor Films<\/li>\n<li>Romance<\/li>\n<li>Widows and Widowers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPrimarily remembered today as the original version of <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=21311\">Douglas Sirk&#8217;s 1954 Technicolor remake<\/a>, this romantic melodrama is notable as the film which gave matinee idol Robert Taylor his breakthrough role &#8212; and it&#8217;s easy to see why audiences went gaga over him. Tall, charismatic, and impossibly handsome (his nickname was &#8220;The Man with the Perfect Profile&#8221;), he nicely handles his character&#8217;s transformation from reckless playboy to chastened suitor (and eventually to mature doctor). <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-57626\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2-480x270.png 480w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor2.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;spiritual&#8221; element of his transformation &#8212; made much more overt in Sirk&#8217;s version &#8212; is toned down here; indeed, director John Stahl exercises admirable restraint with the undeniably melodramatic material, doing his best to make the storyline feel relatively believable. (With that said, some will naturally prefer the direction in which Sirk took the material, which provides an entirely different cinematic experience altogether.) Dunne, interestingly, isn&#8217;t all that memorable here. Unlike Wyman&#8217;s counterpart in the 1954 film, she&#8217;s at least appropriately young and beautiful &#8212; but she really functions as Taylor&#8217;s foil; it&#8217;s his film all the way. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-57629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor.png 1600w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Taylor-480x270.png 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Robert Taylor as Bob Merrick<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Romance.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Romance-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-21393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Romance-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Romance-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Romance-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Magnificent-Obsession-Romance.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s strongly recommended simply to see Taylor&#8217;s star-making turn. Listed as a film with Historical Importance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0026667\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1935\/12\/31\/archives\/magnificent-obsession-a-mystical-film-drama-with-irene-dunn-at-the.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/82394\/magnificent-obsession#overview\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s dead, I&#8217;m alive &#8212; we&#8217;re both out of luck.&#8221; Synopsis: A wealthy playboy (Robert Taylor) pursues the beautiful widow (Irene Dunne) of a beloved doctor, accidentally prompting an accident that causes her to lose her sight. He conceals his identity and befriends her as she adapts to a world of blindness; soon the two fall in love. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Blindness Character Arc Doctors and Nurses Irene Dunne Films Robert Taylor Films Romance Widows and Widowers Review:&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=21390\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21390"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57631,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21390\/revisions\/57631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}