WOMAN OBSESSED

Stephen Boyd and Susan Hayward

WOMAN OBSESSED (1959). Director: Henry Hathaway.

When her husband (Arthur Franz) is killed during a forest fire, Mary Sharron (Susan Hayward) hires a man named Fred Carter (Stephen Boyd) to help her on the farm. Mary has a little boy named Robbie (Dennis Holmes), who is a little wary of Fred at first. Eventually Mary and Fred decide to marry, but the latter's parenting skills are noticeably lacking. This causes decided problems between husband and wife which are hardly helped by his backslapping her and then forcing her to have sex with him. Sexual assault anyone? 

Mary and Fred fall for each other: Boyd; Hayward

From the title and the star you might hope that Woman Obsessed is a trash wallow with Hayward chewing the scenery as she deals with man troubles and other women, but nothing much like that ever happens. The sluttish and homely Barbara Nichols shows up now and then as Fred's ex-girlfriend (he definitely stepped up in class when he married Hayward), but there are no cat fights -- although Fred and Nichols' new boyfriend do have a lively fistfight late in the picture. Instead we are offered some dubious dime store psychology from Hayward's doctor (Theodore Bikel) in regards to Fred's attitudes towards alleged cowardice and other things. Some of the occurrences in the film are predictable; others are not. Both the doctor, Hayward, and the film itself gloss over the rape that clearly occurs (offscreen) halfway through the movie. 

Dennis Holmes with Hayward

Modern-day audiences will have a problem getting past the rape, although there is an attempt to redeem Fred with his heroic efforts to save Mary's life after she has a miscarriage, and his change in attitude towards the boy once he realizes that he, too, can feel fear. Hayward gives a more subdued performance as fits her character and Boyd is actually quite good. Affecting a kind of Canadian accent -- this takes place in Saskatchewan -- it disguises and offsets the somewhat nasal quality of his voice. 9-year-old Dennis Holmes (playing 7, not too big a stretch) is wonderful as little Robbie; he was best-known for a role on the western TV series Laramie with Robert Fuller. Everything is wrapped up in the end like a fifties sitcom. 

Verdict: A nice score (Hugo Friedhofer) and some good acting aren't enough to make this memorable. **.