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50:169 Doctors in Film

Film Notes

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

There are relatively few internet resources that we have found on this film. The Internet Movie Database provides a brief plot summary and cast details. The "Books and Writers" calender link, given below to the author Lloyd Douglas, gives some background on the life and work of this popular novelist. The Literature, Arts and Medicine (LA&M) Database has a better plot summary and a short commentary by the Jacqueline Duffin, a physician-historian.

Questions to consider:

• This film is known as a classic film "soap-opera," one of the "women's weepies" of 1950s Hollywood. What are the gender roles that help to define this characterization?
• Bob Merrick (Hudson) and Helen Philips (Wyman) both spend time as patients in this film. How do their characters express familiary patient "types"?
• One of the major themes of the novel is its Christian message of redemption through anonymous acts of giving and help. Do you find the film to be delivering a Christian perspective? Why or why not?
• In some ways, "Magnificent Obsession" could be seen as a film promoting what is now identified as "virtue" ethics -- physicians behave ethically if they have a virtuous character. Do you agree?
• What do the settings tell you about the "modern" (1954) hospital?
• How does the use of medical technology compare with what we have seen in other films?

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