Woman Obsessed

Susan Hayward, to me, played a woman obsessed with not letting go -- of her dead husband and her past life with him.By refusing to grieve and face her present life and future, she takes herself, her son and new husband to the edge of destruction. The major actors did an excellent job of characterizing individuals who are caught in a cycle of rigidity -- rigidity of emotions, personal boundaries and lifestyle. An excellent study.

After seeing Woman Obsessed, I realize that the Hollywood film industry lost such a talent when the great Susan Hayward died in March, 1975.

She epitomizes troubled women in one film after another. She was so good at it and Woman Obsessed is no exception.

As a remarried woman, still haunted by the tragic death of her first husband, Hayward shows mighty grit in this film with an on par terrific performance by Stephen Boyd, so great that year as Massala in Ben-Hur.

Boyd, as the second husband, appears bully-like in the treatment of Hayward's young son, who turns in quite a performance himself.

What made this flick so good was the wonderful compelling ending where reconciliation and good judgment come together.

***1/2 for a very good film.

"Woman Obsessed" is a film about a blended family which really works out poorly for most of the movie. Fortunately, by the end, these three misfits manage to work things out...but it's very rough going until then!

The story is set in the Canadian wilderness. Shortly after it starts, Mr. Sharron is killed while working to put out a forest fire. Now, his wife and son are alone and the going is tough. Fortunately, Fred Carter (Stephen Boyd) comes to work for Mary Sharron (Susan Hayward) and helps her keep the farm going. Things seem to be going well and Mrs. Sharron's young son seems to really like Fred. Now surprisingly, soon Fred and Mary get hitched...and then it turns out to be a marriage made in hell!

What's wrong with the marriage? Well, all three have no idea HOW to be part of a healthy and functional family. Fred is a bit of a screwball...and his past really makes him an angry and poor father. Mary is a mess and it's obvious when she tells her son that "she'll never love anyone as much as she loves him (her son)"! Talk about setting up the marriage to fail! Talk about creating an Oedipal Complex! And as for the boy, he's REALLY a classic Oedipal son...and he doesn't want Fred touching or kissing HIS mom! It's all pretty wacky and all three could use a lot of therapy...but in this film, it's not like a psychologist has put up a shingle in the Canadian wilderness! So how is this all going to work out? Well, rocky...but what else?

The story is interesting and worth seeing. My only big complaint is that although the new family is a completely dysfunctional mess, everything is worked out too quickly and nicely by the end.

This neighbors to the North melodrama was released by 20th Century Fox after Hayward's Oscar win for "I Want To Live!" It isn't a terrible film, but it isn't terribly good either. Hayward's Mary Sharron is widowed early in the story when her husband is killed by a falling flaming tree during a forest fire. Hayward grieves. Tries to run the farm herself. Is forced to hire moody Fred Carter (Steven Boyd). Hayward watches him chop wood in a tight white tee shirt and eventually marries him. Her son Robbie (Dennis Holmes) - a dreamy kid who hangs out by a quicksand pit and enjoys watching stock footage fauna frolic in the woods, has some difficulties with Carter - especially when Carter kills a deer and forces Robbie to watch the gutting. Carter gets tougher and touchier and more and more moody - he's a ball of psychological sturm und drang roiling with anger centered on his mamby pamby brother.... Carter's Canadian accent grows thicker as the plot careens toward rain and resolution. Carter rapes Mary - she becomes pregnant - Carter moves out to the barn - and threatens to leave altogether. Rain arrives, signaling: (as it always does) change. Carter carries Mary miles in the torrential downpour to town so that she can deliver her baby safely. She eventually learns of this selfless endeavor and her heart softens again. But, Carter is redeemed only after Robbie pulls him from the foreshadowed quicksand sinkhole. Unfortunately Hayward doesn't get much of a chance to crackle but fun performances and a decent amount of melodrama make this a fair one to catch.

Woman Obsessed teams Susan Hayward and Stephen Boyd in a rugged northwestern about a widow and the farmhand she hires. Though set in Canada according to the Citadel Film Series book, The Films Of Susan Hayward the outdoor scenes were shot in Lone Pine, a location that director Henry Hathaway favored. He had shot The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine in that area over 20 years earlier.

When we first meet Hayward, she's a happy rural woman with husband Arthur Franz and son Dennis Holmes. But then Franz is killed and Susan's really up against it raising a child and trying to work a small farm. She hires a brooding Stephen Boyd as a hand.

Although not mentioned as per The Code, Hayward's got other needs that are subtly suggested and Boyd does have a superficial resemblance to Franz. But it's superficial only. Boyd is inarticulate and almost surly at times, especially around young Dennis Holmes.

This was the strength of Woman Obsessed. The plot could have gone in several directions, Boyd's very inarticulateness could have hidden great sadness, great humanity, or an incredible villainy. You really don't know until the end how it will turn out. Though Hayward is top billed, the film really does turn on Boyd's performance.

Also in the film is Theodore Bikel as the area's doctor, a very compassionate and humanitarian man and Barbara Nichols who just comes across too much as a wisecracking city dame. You don't find people like her in the rugged Northwest.

Woman Obsessed holds up well today. Canada still has rugged frontier area and people probably do still live the way Hayward and Boyd do.