A WOMAN OBSESSED
US, 1959, 103 minutes, Colour.
Susan Hayward, Stephen Boyd, Theodore Bickel.
Directed by Henry Hathaway.
An outdoors soap opera, directed by veteran Henry Hathaway, a specialist in Westerns and outdoor adventures like True Grit. Susan Hayward, in the year after her Oscar winning-performance in I Want to Live, is a sympathetic and strong heroine. She is matched by Stephen Boyd in a performance the same year as his most notable performance as Messala in Ben Hur. Photographed attractively with Canadian locations, the film has all the elements of family melodrama and clashes with the rugged setting.
1. The significance of the title, its tone, its focus on Mary as a person and the issues in her life?
2. The popularity of soap opera ingredients? The struggle for a widow to help her son, her work? Marriage? Marital clashes, misunderstandings, self-sacrifice? Why the perennial interest? How appealing in the rugged outdoor setting? For what audience was the film made?
3. The contribution of Cinemascope colour location photography, the emphasis on the mountains and their beauty, the animal life? Fire and its devastation, the difficulties of the seasons especially snow, raging rivers? llow well were these integrated into the plot?
4. The impact of the outdoors - the farm, the dangers, animal life, the varied terrain, the need for flares for communication, snowdrifts and transport by cart and horse, swollen rivers? Doctors travelling around? The hard work ploughing the fields etc.? The effect of this way of life on families?
5. The impact of the initial fire, the death of Mary's husband? allowing the bond between Mary and Robbie especially in their discussion about death? The dramatics of the fire and the aftermath? Emotional response to Mary's being widowed?
6. Susan Hayward's style as Mary? A good woman, her love for her son, her facing her widowhood? Her attempts to manage the farm by herself, her not being able to cope with the work? Robbie’s assistance? The advertisement for help, the taking on of Fred? The civilities with Fred? Talk in the town - especially when Mary went shopping? The growing bonds between the three? The significance of the discussion with the shop assistant and especially buying the material for a coloured dress? The impact of the long sequence at the Fair and their all enjoying it? Did this make the marriage credible?
7. The portrait of Robbie as a young boy seeing him at play in the mountains at the opening, the discussion about death, his missing his father, trying to help his mother with her work? His dislike of Fred and its being changed by the enjoyment of the fair? Mary asking his permission about the marriage? His ignorance and later fear that he was being excluded from her love? His behaviour at the wedding? The continued hostilities towards Fred? The importance of the savaging of the deer and Fred making him look at the killing? His angers and sullenness in the house, at the table, the pitchfork? His reliance on his mother? The impact of his fainting and Mary's interpretation of this? His being lost at the time of the flood, his luring Fred into the swamp and then saving him? Was the chance at the end credible? The portrait of a boy and his problems in coping with the loss of his father, the gaining of a stepfather, relating to his mother?
8. Stephen Boyd's strength as Fred? Ilis presence and concern, skill at his work, his reputation? The true story about his wife's death and his brother's cowardice? The importance of the outing at the fair, the proposal and the effect on Mary, her asking permission and consenting? The happiness of the wedding? How inevitable were the clashes? Did the audience side with Mary or with Fred? Pred as a man of anger, his decision about forcing Robbie to look at the dead deer, his reaction to the doctor? His challenging Robbie with the pitchfork? His leaving, the fight in the town as a way of releasing tension, the return from jail? His saving Mary and Robbie in the snow, his carrying Mary to the doctor? The impact of learning that she was bearing his child? His illness, confession to the doctor, heroism in moving away? The mutual asking of forgiveness? His love for her at the end and its reward? A credible portrait of this kind of man?
9. Mary and her lack of judgment in protecting Robbie, not talking to Fred? The reaction to her pregnancy? fler discussions with the doctor? Her being carried to safety and her life saved, the importance of the doctor confronting her with the truth?
10. The character of the doctor and his crucial role? The people in the town, the shop assistant, the Forest Patrol?
11. The portrait of a family, family problems and solutions?
12. The portrait of men in the outback, women? Relationships? An optimistic tone that problems can be solved? The film working on the level of popular insight?
