Posters of the film Magnificent Obsession from the years of 1935 and 1954.
The storyline of the movie Magnificent Obsession is a prime example of the way in which the same story can be communicated and expressed different, based on the perspective of the communicator. This film was released in 1935, after having been directed by John M. Stahl, and nearly twenty years later, in 1954, was released again and was directed by Douglas Sirk. The differences in the two versions of the movie is quite apparent due to the time lapse between releases: the increased technology, augmented sound quality, and most obviously, color film, but more importantly, the mise-en-scene, or as Timothy Corrigan describes it in A Short Guide to Writing About Film, “what is put into the scene,” (51) within each film, created specifically by the director is important to look at because it brings to light exactly what that director was attempting to communicate to their audience. The aspect of mise-en-scene that was most apparent to me, while comparing the two versions of the film, was that of the narrative of each, and how the increased information in the more recent version calls for the audience to be more connected to the characters.
In John M. Stahl’s production of Magnificent Obsession, we are first introduced to two women, Joyce and Helen Hudson, whom we soon find out are related because Helen was recently married to Joyce’s father. The two women look the same age and it is apparent that they had known each other before the marriage, but we are not given too many details about their previous relationship. They are taken in a car back to a hospital, where it seems that Dr. Hudson, Joyce’s father and Helen’s husband, works. After only a few moments, we find out that Dr. Hudson died while swimming in a nearby lake, and was not able to be saved due to the necessary medical equipment being used at the accident of another site. We are given brief details about how exactly Dr. Hudson died, and then are introduced to the character, Bob Merrick, a young boy who was injured while boating after a night of drinking, who was the reason that Dr. Hudson could not receive the care that he needed.
Contrastingly, in Douglas Sirk’s rendition of the film, we are presented with a much more extensive and elaborate depiction of the characters and the plot. We have a better grasp of the character of Bob Merrick as we actually see his accident occur on the lake in his speedboat. The doctor, who in this movie is named Dr. Phillips, has a different dynamic and we witness not only their arrival to the home to find out about his death, but also their response to the tragedy. After the death of Dr. Phillips, his wife, daughter, doctor and friend provide us with a better understanding of his character and personality, although we never actually see his character. The scenes presented in this version of the film regarding the death of the doctor span out over a longer period of time, and also are much more detail oriented.
The many different elements that can surround the mise-en-scene of a film are critical in understanding the perspective by which the director wanted to frame the film. In both versions of Magnificent Obsession that we watched, we were presented with two similar yet very different versions of the same plot. This is a clear depiction of perspective and point of view, and how each can differ so considerably, while still conveying the same underlying message.
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