Magnificent Obsession
Director: Douglas Sirk
Year Released: 1954
Rating: 2.5
So soapy your eyes burn and so grossly contrived (even by Hollywood's standards) that the script schematic looks like a football play, complete with X's and O's and arrows (and even John Madden shouting "Boom!"). Millionaire Rock Hudson's recklessness brings about misery for Jane Wyman and her physician husband: when Hudson almost dies in a boating accident, they use the machine that would have saved the physician's life on him; when Hudson tries to apologize to Wyman, she flees and gets hit by a car and is blinded. He chases her, she keeps running, he becomes a brain surgeon, she needs him to live: there's even a messianic artist figure that looms in the background, uttering the title several times and acting as a (quite literal) guardian angel for Hudson, who becomes - in his own way - a Messiah, giving up his wealth to aid the poor. Proceed with caution.
