PARAMOUNT THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 133, 29 February 1936, Page 13

PARAMOUNT THEATRE

* “Magnificent Obsession” A strange story, far removed from the banal and meretricious in life, is told in “Magnificent Obsession,” which after a highly successful season at the Regent Theatre, is now showing at the Paramount There is deftly interwoven in the warp and woof, of the story a delicate thread of spirituality, very beautifully and delicately suggested, yet permeating the whole. Despite the serious, almost exalted, quality of the story, it will pass over the head of nobody, for there are plenty of touches of hearty comedy to relieve the drama and keep it always at a level where it will be appreciated and enjoyed by the. average pic-ture-goer. Even a very brief outline of the story should give an indication of its possibilities. At a big hospital a youhg wastrel and a great doctor fire both involved in accidents and need artificial respiration. But there is only one pulmotor. and it is used on .the young man, with the result that the much more valuable life of the doctor is lost. Impressed by the debt he owes society, the. young man partly reforms his mode of life, and incidentally falls in love with the doctor s beautiful young widow. But he is then; responsible for a motoring accident in which she loses her sight; and his magnificent obsession to take the great doctor’s place and cure the blindness of the woman he loves becomes the driving force in his life. “Magnificent Obsession” is wonderfully, well produced and capitally acted. Irene Dunne makes a deep impression by extremely natural, sympathetic and sensitive acting, arid in Robert Taylor is disclosed a handsome, debonair star, possessed of all the qualities of a screen idol. All the other characters in a long cast are admirably presented.