Episode #33 -- Magnificent Obsession

(or: "A Thorough Critique of Rock Hudson's Kissing Technique-- Hey, That Rhymes!")

Well, someone certainly thinks highly of their obsession, don't they? Granted, "A Pretty Good Obsession" doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but c'mon, show a little humility, will you? The answer, of course, is no. Magnificent Obsession is a movie based on a book written by a minister back in the late 1920's that was pretty popular but, by most accounts, not actually very good. That didn't stop Hollywood from making it into a movie twice, though (why would it?). 

The plot of the movie centers around Bob Merrick, played by Rock Hudson, who is some rich dickhead who races motorboats around poorly at implausible speeds. He causes the death of the head doctor of the town's hospital after he gets into a boating accident and hogs up the hospital's resuscitator while the aforementioned doctor is dying of a heart attack, and quickly follows that up by accidentally blinding the doctor's widow in his efforts to prove that he's not a total piece of garbage. And look, that's not how either of us would try to make amends, but you have to bear in mind that the 1950's were a very different time. We've begun to make some real good, meaningful societal changes over the last few years, but we've still got a long ways to go before we can recognize blinding the widow of the man you inadvertently killed as a valid means of reparations. Someday, though. Someday