Woman Obsessed (1959)

After her husband (Arthur Franz) is killed in a forest fire, a woman (Susan Hayward) on a rural Canadian farm hires a quiet, if coarse, man (Stephen Boyd) to help with the farm chores. After the town gossips start talking, she decides to marry him, not only to quell the rumors, but to provide a father for her 7 year old son (Dennis Holmes). But soon after the marriage, the new husband and the boy clash and things take a turn for the worse. Based on the novel THE SNOW BIRCH by John Mantley and directed by Henry Hathaway (NORTH TO ALASKA). This rustic soap opera is lazily made. After the husband's death, we jump to a month or so. We never see how Hayward accepts the news of her spouse's death or how it affects the child, both important elements considering how the story unfolds. The CinemaScope photography by Oscar winning William C. Mellor (PLACE IN THE SUN) is often quite handsome as it investigates the landscapes but there is a lot of clumsy rear outdoor projection shots that frequently clash with the realistic mountain settings. Hayward emotes away as the miscast Boyd (the role needed a less refined actor) broods and even the normally reliable Hugo Friedhofer can't manage much in the way of a decent score. With Theodore Bikel, Barbara Nichols, Ken Scott and James Philbrook.