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To me, this movie is perfection.

Just perfect...

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

"Magnificent Obsession" is a 1935 film starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor; it was remade in the '50s in Technicolor and starred Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. The story is preposterous, the melodrama is over the top, but this film gave both Taylor, a farm boy from Nebraska and Hudson, a truck driver from Illinois, their big breaks.Robert Merrick (Taylor) is a drunken playboy who, one afternoon, falls off his sailboat and has to be resuscitated with the use of what's called in this film a "pulmotor," a device that forces oxygen into the lungs.Unfortunately, the pulmotor was needed across the lake for an older man, a Dr. Hudson, who has had a heart attack, but because one isn't available, the man dies. When his wife (Dunne) and daughter (Betty Furness) arrive home, they get the horrible news. There is bitterness everywhere because Dr. Hudson was beloved, a fine doctor and an exceptional man, and Merrick is a drunken, rich loser.At one point, Merrick meets a man (Ralph Morgan) who gives him the secret philosophy that Dr. Hudson lived by and taught him - give anonymously and without expecting repayment.When Merrick spots Mrs. Hudson, he has no idea who she is and tries to pick her up. One day, he offers her a ride and "runs out of gas." As she's leaving the car to take a ride with someone else, a car hits her and she is badly injured - in fact, she's blinded.Merrick now befriends her in the park, where she sits practicing her Braille. He doesn't identify himself - she calls him "Dr. Robert"; he tells her that he once had aspirations to be a doctor himself. He arranges for her to have a steady income, since Dr. Hudson gave most of his money away and only has worthless stocks - she thinks her husband's copper stocks are now worth a lot -- and then he arranges for some of the finest doctors in the world to meet in Paris and study her. She thinks it's because her husband was so highly regarded. Alas, the prognosis is that the doctors see no point in surgery. It goes on from there, assuming fabulous aspects.This kind of melodrama was extremely popular in the 1930s; director Douglas Sirk loved this type of film and remade some of them in the '50s, giving them big, glitzy productions, and made some new ones as well.Though today the plot seems ridiculous, because of the commitment and likability of the actors and the spiritual undertone that goes throughout the film, somehow one doesn't stop watching, and it sure worked well in 1935 and 1954.Robert Taylor is gloriously handsome, known for his perfect profile, resonant speaking voice, and charming presence. I have never considered him much of an actor, but he was my mother's favorite, and I watch him every time he's on TCM in her honor. He holds the record for being employed by a studio the longest - 24 years with MGM, until it dissolved, and went on to more films, a successful television show, and he replaced Ronald Reagan on Death Valley Days.Irene Dunne gives a lovely performance without histrionics or being overdone in any way.Good movie? For what it is, yes.

In Westchester, the reckless and arrogant playboy Robert Merrick (Robert Taylor) drinks too much and drowns in the sea. He is resuscitated with the lung equipment of the famous Dr. Wayne Hudson. Coincidently at the same time, Dr. Hudson needs the apparatus to breathe and dies in his Brightwood Hospital. Dr. Hudson's young wife, Helen (Irene Dunne), and his daughter Joyce (Betty Furness) blame Bob Merrick for his irresponsibility and hate him. They discover that Dr. Hudson had secretly helped many people that adore him. When Merrick sees Helen Hudson, he has a crush on her, but she refuses to even see him. One day, Merrick meets the artist Randolph (Ralph Morgan) by chance and he learns that Dr. Hudson followed the Christian philosophy, secretly helping people without expecting any return or acknowledgment. One day, Merrick gives a ride to Helen to force her to stay with him in his car. However Helen gets out of the car upset with Merrick's attitude, and another car runs over her and Helen becomes blind. Later Merrick meets Helen in the park and lures her, introducing himself as Dr. Robert. Meanwhile he financially helps Helen and hires five specialists to examine her in Paris. Helen is examined but the doctors find clots in her brain and advise her that they will not operate her. Meanwhile Merrick and Helen fall in love with each other; however when Merrick proposes Helen, he discloses his true identity to her. On the next morning, Helen vanishes without any trace from the hotel. Merrick studies medicine and becomes a brain surgeon and specialist in Europe expecting to help Helen someday. Six years later, he returns to Detroit and Randolph tells him that Helen is very sick in Virginia. He heads to Virginia with Joyce, her husband Tommy Masterson (Charles Butterworth) and the nurse Nancy Ashford (Sara Haden) and operates Helen."Magnificent Obsession" is a wonderful melodramatic story of hate, love and redemption. The introduction with Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture" causes a favorable impact with this feature from the very beginning. Irene Dunne is magnificent as usual and has a great chemistry with Robert Taylor. I bought the DVD released by the Brazilian Versátil Distributor with the 1954 version and for my surprise, the DVD was double with the 1935 version of "Magnificent Obsession" as a bonus. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Sublime Obsessão" ("Sublime Obsession")

Magnificent Obsession concerns a reckless playboy named Merrick, who drowns and is resuscitated with equipment that might have saved the elderly doctor to whom it belonged. Falling in love with the doctor's beautiful young wife, who hates the very thought of him, he learns the reason for her love of the man who died...a philosophy of helping other people, without ever letting them know. When the women loses her sight in a car accident, Merrick takes advantage of her blindness by befriending her. Pretending to be a doctor, he determines to become a surgeon to restore her vision at the risk of losing her love.

Magnificent Obsession - 1935 I've probably watched Universal's 1954 version of Magnificent Obsession 25 times while researching the movies made in the San Bernardino mountains. This is one of those films where there can be no doubt about its location, Lake Arrowhead. But I have always had my doubt about the original 1935 version as ever having been made in the mountains, even though one of the Captain's of the Arrowhead Queen unequivocally stated that he had heard it had been filmed at Lake Arrowhead. In my research over the years, I had never been able to ascertain one way or the other until August, 2000 at the U.C.L.A. Film Archives. The most pleasant surprise is that there is at least one identifiable scene with Lake Arrowhead in the background - including a speedboat cruising across the lake. It is a very brief scene and by far and away, the majority of the film is shot in a studio. Another equally pleasant surprise is a very young (23) Robert Taylor playing a sophisticated playboy (#1) and then an older doctor (#2) and pulling it off believably. His maturity and acting ability are evident from the first frame. Irene Dunne, who was 7 years older, is an accomplished and polished actress with only a few groans to show for her effort. (Her groping blind scenes leave you exasperated.) Comic relief is supplied by an aged Charles Butterworth, as an unlikely suitor to a very young Betty Furness, the step-daughter of Ms. Dunne. This is not the soapy Universal version done later by Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman, but a thoughtful, intelligent script that is closer to the original Lloyd C. Douglas novel, who just happened to be the screenwriter on this version. The print of the 1935 version is very dark and will probably never be shown again in public unless a restoration effort is made. Unfortunately, there are too many films to restore and only so much money available.