Producer Sydney Boehm also adapted John Mantley's book for the screen, an emotionally-tangled tale of a widow and her young son in Saskatchewan who advertise for help running their farm; a rugged yet oddly child-like logger (and an acquaintance of the widow's late husband) takes the job, while gossiping tongues wag back in town. Seems the logger has a chequered past and a mercurial temper, which should send warning signs to our heroine (Susan Hayward)--who ends up doing what all simp-heroines in soap operas do, she marries him! The opening prologue of about 12 minutes could have been dispatched with just two or three lines of dialogue, while the mix of on-location photography, studio shots and intermittent nature footage causes the film's visual sense to look mighty inconsistent. The exteriors are very pretty, yet the human drama at the forefront is blobby and unformed (particularly with Stephen Boyd's character). Hayward is less domineering than usual (and she seems to fall down a lot around horses!), but playing Mommy doesn't appear to be her forté. **1/2 from ****
Review of Woman Obsessed
