Rock Hudson Screen Legend Collection (1965)

Spiral Road surprise

PLOT SPOILER
Spiral road turned out to be an excellent, thoughtful film. It was too long in obscurity. Hudson plays an ambitious doctor and top competitive athlete who feels utterly self-confident. He is not sympathetic to people who can't handle life without community or for example religion.The film has lush tropical atmosphere in color, but such a view of humanity is the core issue here.

Ives is the crusty old world expert on leprosy who is too busy treating patients and coping with jungle life to publish his stack of research findings. He maintains a tough exterior but gains deep respect and affection for Hudson, that he tries to conceal.

PLOT SPOILER
Toward the remarkable ending Hudson cracks under quite strange but believable psychological pressures. He is being outwitted and starts making dumb mistakes as any human might under such alien circumsances. If you are the sort who thinks YOU wound never ever make such mistakes, forget this film. Anyway he falls apart mentally out alone in the jungle. He has to be rescued. All that saves him is that other human beings who love him more than he loves them have come to care about him. It is implied that he comes to realize that loving human bonds are not simply weaknesses but are critical to human survival and give meaning to life.

Elsewhere I read that the film is about atheism versus religious belief. The film does involve missionaries who run a leper colony, Hudson's disdain for religion, and it does end with a quote from the Bible, but the overall characterization is misleading. All these elements largely raise issues for the viewer to ponder. For example suppose Hudson's scientific arguments were correct, and the religious position was wrong. So what? -- Apparently what was really important was the love component in religion as it was presented in the film in the context of care for the lepers and the importance of personal bonds among the doctors in tough situations at the edge of survival. I don't know the book, and it is not impossible that the author originally had a different objective, and that Hudson would have found God in the end. But that was not how the film developed the story.

Hudson and others did quite respectable jobs of acting. Some would say he was out of character, but I would say that the film is rather unusual in any event and any famous actor might seem out of character for some viewers. I liked the way he played the role, however. Gratefully, the actors did not overplay and trivialize the points that I just made. I liked the dialogue. There were some nice thought provoking lines.

This is quite simply a thought provoking film -- it is not an action or adventure film. It is not the usual sort of drama. It is not an inspirational religious film about conversion. It is difficult to put it into the usual categories without raising misleading expectations. February 28, 2008

still waiting

I ordered this product but as yet have not received it....its now August 2nd Its weeks since I ordered this collection, hence I cannot review this item...very dissapointed in the service. August 1, 2007

its the greatest

It is so good to have five of Rock Hudson's Universal International films in one package. I only hope the studio continues the process and in the near future we will see a package containing This Earth is Mine, A Gathering of Eagles, The Desert Hawk, Seminole and Captain Lightfoot. Hey thats just a start, what about Twilight for the Gods, The Tarnished Angels and Blindfold. All Universal hits. It is a treat to watch these dvds after so many years of not having them available to watch. Quality is pretty good. December 2, 2006

Excellent collection...except for the misquote

Universal is starting to get better with their franchise collection DVDs, including this one, as they are released on single discs with only one to two movies on each. This allows for better quality unlike the dual-sided discs crammed with up to four movies a disc.

While this collection features rare Rock Hudson movies, I must say the entertainment value is well worth the expense. At about 4 or 5 dollars a movie, it's cheaper than a movie ticket. AND YOU GET TO KEEP THEM! With this release also came out similar collections of Cary Grant and Bing Crosby. Unfortunately, there is some technical skipping or stoppage in one of the Cary Grant discs--the only technical malfunction so far as I still have more of the collections to watch. (Skipping and stopping has been an issue with Universals Franchise Collection DVD packaging for awhile now, but slowly it's getting better.)

The packaging is nicely done with some interesting side notes on each film inside the casing. However, there is a misquote on the three films he did with Doris Day (at least in my copy there is). It states the three movies Rock did with Doris were Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, and Come September? The first two are correct, but the latter is suppose to state Send Me No Flowers. He did Come September the same year as Send Me No Flowers, but he did it with an italian actress, Gina Lollibrigida as their second movie together. November 25, 2006

Worth the wait...

Finally, The Spiral Road is available on DVD, and that alone is worth the cost of this collection. Amazon indicated the format was standard and I was prepared to accept that. Thankfully, it was issued in widescreen. I agree this is an obscure title, but an excellent movie. Grab it while you can. November 21, 2006

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