Magnificent Obsession (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

This has been a treat to find this movie. I first saw this movie as a child one evening on TV on a movie channel and it is a great story. It’s a very inspirational movie. The movie quality of the DVD is excellent.

If you have not seen this movie, you must! There is a remake on TV, but it does not their original. This is and I am delighted with my purchase!

I forgot just how bad/great this movie is. In fact, I forgot how true this is to all Douglas Sirk's movies, but this my favorite. I remember seeing this on NBC's Saturday Nights at the Movies when I was a kid. Where to begin. The acting is wooden (although Hudson is always wooden, no pun intended) the sound stage scenes are so lavish and over the top and the music, OMG, the music. Between the defining sounds of violins and a chorus sounding like angles as the sky opens it is enough to make you want to cry (from laughter). Yet, it was the beginning of a string of very highly successful, Technicolor extravaganza's that the public wanted. Soap opera at ITS BEST! The story is so ludicrous (as all of Sirk's stories were) that I will not even address because so many have. It truly defies logic in any sense of the word....again, a HUGE trademark for movies back in the 50s. The cinematography is breathtaking, the use of Technicolor to paint a deep, deep pallet is mesmerizing and the sheer joy of being transported into another place and time in order to forget your own problems of the day is what makes movies, movies. This one has all three in spades. Wyman is excellent, a consummate professional. Hudson is wooden and can't act, which is what gives him his charm...who needs those incidentals when you look like that. If you purchase only one Douglas Sirk movie this is the one to own. Although Imitation of Life (1959)and All That Heaven Allows (1956) come real close. It is bad acting, bad movie, bad everything at its FINEST. Which is what makes it so GREAT! ENJOY!

Would buy again . Good quality DVD.

The movie folowed the book pretty well, but the original move, I felt, was more powerful. I watched both movies , which were in the Criterion Collection, after reading the book, which I think was important. The book delt more deeply with Dr. Hudson's back story. in fact, the follow up novel written years later by Lloyd C. Douglas, Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal, has the potential of being made into a good movie. I don't know whether it is still in print, but it's a good read.

This movie is very entertaining

I remember this movie from years ago, and didn't think I would ever be able to see it again, Then when you showed it as being available, I immediately ordered it. When I watched it, I found it all came back to me, and although I knew what the ending would be, it was like watching it for the first time, and I was caught up in the drama, although it was outdated, and a little bit hokey by today's standards. That didn't matter however, and it thrilled me all over again. I will be showing it to our friends and our relatives when they come to visit, as I order many dvds from you and our company always loves our old movies. Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson made a beautiful team! Millie Cavanaugh, Florida.

Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman love story. ( Jane was married to Ronald Reagan at one time). Anyway, my wife asked me to get it and loves this movie classic. A great cast and story.

Beautiful copy of one of Sirk's great US melodramas, with good DVD extras, urging one on to viewings of All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, Tarnished Angels, Imitation of a Life!

Un playboy téméraire, deux accidents simultanés ,un choix déchirant, sauvé un docteur ou le riche playboy. Histoire poignante.

Note to Aussies: The complaints / poor reviews about Criterion releases due to their not working on Australian BD players are quite dull. US blu rays are locked to that territory so you will need a suitable player. Not my favourite of the Sirk movies I have watched, I couldn't vibe with the car/boating scenes SFX. But there's a lot of ridiculous goings on and it is all played straight and without absurd twists. A lot of the subtext is fairly blatant given the origins of the story, but am looking foward to hearing the commentary. Great fun.

Love the film, top notch actors, predicable plotline. I cannot re-watch, the CD skips, pauses etc. Again, the movies are over priced.

This is a beautiful classic movie and it is a movie to watch many times.Perhaps it is a rather unlikely story line however typical of the times.It is an excellent addition to a classic movie library.