IMDb > Magnificent Obsession (1935)

Magnificent Obsession (1935) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
7.2/10   208 votes
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Director:
John M. Stahl
Writers:
Lloyd C. Douglas (novel)
Sarah Y. Mason (writer) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Magnificent Obsession on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
30 December 1935 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more
Tagline:
Hate turned into love! more
Plot Keywords:
User Comments:
A Big Hit On the Road more (9 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Irene Dunne ... Helen Hudson

Robert Taylor ... Dr. Robert Merrick
Charles Butterworth ... Tommy Masterson
Betty Furness ... Joyce Hudson
Sara Haden ... Nancy Ashford
Ralph Morgan ... Randolph
Henry Armetta ... Tony
Gilbert Emery ... Dr. Ramsay
Arthur Treacher ... Horace
Beryl Mercer ... Mrs. Eden
Alyce Ardell ... The French maid
Theodore von Eltz ... Dr. Preston
Sidney Bracey ... Butler
Arthur Hoyt ... Perry
Cora Sue Collins ... Ruth
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
112 min | 98 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English | French
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)
Certification:
Finland:K-16
Filming Locations:
Big Bear Lake, California, USA more
Company:
Universal Pictures more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
After being loaned by MGM, his home studio, to Universal for this film, Robert Taylor would not make another non-MGM movie for 24 years (until the 1959 Paramount film _The Hangman (1959)_). more
Quotes:
Dr. Robert Merrick: Take back to the cook and tell her that if she brings back again, I'm gonna buy this hospital and fire her and everybody else in it. I want some decent breakfast.
Nurse: It's the same breakfast we serve all the patients.
Dr. Robert Merrick: Yeah, but I am "The Special".
more
Movie Connections:
Version of "Sublime Obsessão" (1958) more
Soundtrack:
Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful.
A Big Hit On the Road, 16 November 2007
8/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

I suppose Magnificent Obsession could best be described as a religious soap opera. It's definitely the kind of film that both of its stars, Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor would identify with in real life given their politics which were on the right. Even more so for Irene Dunne who was a prominent Catholic lay person.

It was a best seller in 1929 for newly minted writer Lloyd C. Douglas, a former Methodist minister who had retired from the pulpit and spent the rest of his life writing fictional works with a religious theme.

Irene Dunne was by this time a very big star and Magnificent Obsession entered the pantheon of her big hit films. But for Robert Taylor it was the breakout film of his career, establishing him once and for all as a star player with potent box office.

Taylor was a special favorite of Louis B. Mayer at MGM, it wasn't an accident he established a record for the longest studio contract in film history. Taylor was coming along in his career quite nicely as and had gotten notice in some supporting roles and had even had a lead in Murder in the Fleet. He had also played part of a love triangle as another doctor in Society Doctor with Chester Morris and Virginia Bruce.

I'm betting that it was that this was the film that Carl Laemmle saw at Universal when he asked Mayer for Taylor's service on a loan out. This would have been a win-win situation for MGM. If Taylor clicked they had his services and if he didn't it was Universal's loss.

Anyway it was in this role as the shallow playboy who becomes a noted surgeon that Taylor scored his big hit. His growth in some ways is similar to Tyrone Power's later on in The Razor's Edge. In fact had this been done at 20th Century Fox Power would also have had a big hit. But his breakthrough year was one year away.

Through a combination of unfortunate circumstances a noted doctor, esteemed for his good works dies suddenly of a heart attack. He might have been saved, but a resuscitator was being used on a young Taylor who was involved in a speeding boat accident. He becomes a hated figure with the family and friends of the late doctor, especially his new widow, Irene Dunne.

Later on Taylor while in an inebriated state meets up with Ralph Morgan who lets him spend the night and sober up on his couch. When Taylor awakens, Morgan talks to him about trying to tap into a higher power by doing some good works and it will redound to his favor on earth and in heaven. And the idea is to shun publicity for the same.

Taylor expects some more immediate return on good works, but it he gradually comes to a full realization of what Morgan is talking about. Former minister Lloyd C. Douglas had used as the basis for this philosophy, Matthew Chapter 6, 1-4. The substance of which don't flaunt your good works before humanity openly because then you'll be courting favor with the world. But if you do it with as little fanfare as possible, God will reward you in heaven and on earth.

Robert Taylor was 24 when he made this film and the part called for him to age several years and he succeeds as both the playboy and the mature and spiritual doctor. Magnificent Obsession was remade 19 years later with Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman and proved to be as big a hit with audiences then as in the Thirties.

Robert Taylor made very few films away from MGM until his contract was up after 1958. I suppose his services were Louis B. Mayer's Magnificent Obsession.

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DVD to be released January 2009 Wailmer1990
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