Men in White

This movie is best known in film history as the inspiration for the Three Stooges' comedy short "Men in Black", although there is really no comparison between the two. This is a well-paced little hospital drama made right before the production code began to be enforced. Dr. George Forrest (Clark Gable) is an intern at a busy hospital and Laura Hudson (Myrna Loy) is his socialite fiancée. Forrest wants to study under Dr. Hochberg (Jean Hersholt) when his time is up as an intern, but it means only twenty dollars a week and long indefinite hours. Laura wants her fiancée to go into private practice so that they can have a normal life together after their marriage. Laura may be a bit of a spoiled brat, but she knows it, so it makes her more likable. Forrest is torn between wanting to please Laura and wanting the great chance to work with Hochberg. A fight between the couple one night sets up the scene for a scandal that has the opportunity to derail both Forrest's career and personal life. That is pretty much the crux of the movie.

What keeps it interesting is the pacing and the performances. I found it to be the most believable of the Gable/Loy pairings I've seen. Plus, unlike so many MGM dramas of the 30's, there is no unreasonable bad guy in sight - only the fight to advance medicine. Another matter of interest is the art deco interior design of the hospital. For example, there is a staircase in the main lobby of the hospital that is out of this world.

Firstoff, I wonder if these comments will ever be read! I never even heard of it until it was shown on TCM tonight. I almost changed the channel but went ahead an stayed with it because it had this black and white quality like Citizen Kane and the lack of a single note of music made it seem like a stage play. As obscure a movie as this is, it is a very relevant movie because it was probably the first big city hospital drama about the lives of the doctors " Men in White", ever put on celluloid! I kept saying as I watched this black&white masterpiece of film, directing and acting, that this show was just like the modern 2000's TV series ER! Right down to Clark Gables character "Dr. George" who played a character just like George Clooneys! He was a young goodlooking idealistic doctor educated in the new medicine and he was rufffling the feathers of the old school practitioners and thier outdated methods! He was loved by his patients and fellow workers and had an uncommon softness towards his child patients, just like Clooney in ER! Although he wanted a social life, it kept getting in the way of his first love, medicine. It was uncannily like ER! It deserves to be seen by anyone who likes good moviemaking because this flick was ahead

This is one darn good movie. Clark Gable (pre-GWTW) gives a super performance, and Myrna Loy never looked lovelier (and puts in a good performance herself). The story is compelling without being maudlin, and the comic relief doesn't get in the way (as it usually does). Hospital chaos is well depicted, and not everything turns out rosey. We of our era didn't invent "realistic" hospital drama -- we just think we did. Dated? Of course it's dated -- it was made over 60 years ago. However, sixty years from now, they'll be laughing at the stuff we're putting on TV, but they'll still be riveted to "Men in White."

"Men in White" is a 1934 film starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Jean Hersholt, Elizabeth Allan, and Otto Kruger. Gable plays a promising young doctor, George Ferguson, who is planning on studying in Vienna and then returning and working closely with Dr. Hochberg (Hersholt), apparently in scientific research. He's engaged to a society woman, Laura Hudson (Loy) who is already upset about the lack of time she and George have together. She would rather he go into private practice and work regular hours. This becomes a subject of argument, and the situation goes from bad to worse, particularly one night when an angry Laura stops speaking to George.

This film is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning play by Sidney Kingsley, which, in addition to what is shown in the film, also dealt with anti-Semitism. The idea of going to Vienna in 1934, with the Loy character rhapsodizing over it - guess MGM was out of touch with what was happening, or chose to ignore it.

The acting in this film is very good, if by today's standards, a little melodramatic in parts. Otto Kruger has a very sympathetic role in this - later on he always played someone truly nasty.

The real star of the film is the absolutely incredible art deco hospital set that has to be seen - stunning, with a circular staircase, and huge windows that overlook the George Washington Bridge. The photography is marvelous, particularly an operating room scene where we see doctors observing in a top area reflected through a light.

The other things you'll notice, if you've been alive more than a few years, are the nurses' uniforms and caps and the glass straws, items we don't see any longer. And a little girl's parents who would be cast as her great-grandparents today.

The story isn't spelled out for us - in fact, I can tell you my mother, as an adult, could have sat through it and had no idea what happened. Talk about subtle.

Definitely worth seeing, with Gable and Loy an effective team.

As mentioned in Moe Howard's book MOE HOWARD & THE 3 STOOGES (Citadel Press, 1977), MEN IN BLACK (1934) an early Three Stooges short made at Columbia Pictures was a take off on MEN IN WHITE. "For duty and humanity" is a phrase used numerous times throughout this twenty minute comedy and is a central theme in the Clark Gable film which was released earlier that same year. MEN IN BLACK, which contains another reoccurring phrase (which many Three Stooges fans will remember immediately) "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard", was nominated for the Academy Award in 1934 for best short. An abbreviated version of this short was reenactment in the ABC-TV movie THE THREE STOOGES (1999) which was produced by Mel Gibson, a well know Stooges enthusiast.