Dr. Kildare - Das Geheimnis

Lionel Barrymore ("Dr. Gillespie") and Lew Ayres ("Dr. Kildare") are teacher and pupil in this competent medical drama. The former is working himself too hard trying to get to the root causes - and therefore to develop a treatment for - pneumonia. The latter is working with the daughter of one of America's wealthiest men (Lionel Atwill) who seems to be suffering from a sort of psychological illness derived from some incident from her past. Barrymore is great as the curmudgeonly, wheelchair-bound physician and he has some fun set-piece skirmishes with head nurse "Molly" (Alma Kruger); otherwise it is only really remarkable as an obvious precursor to not only the "Dr. Kildare" television series' but to episodic medical programming in general.

It's hard to imagine this series without Lionel Barrymore as the cantankerous old wheelchair-ridden Dr. Gillespie, who is perfect counterpoint to the good actor, but rather bland Lew Ayres, playing Dr. Kildare. Without Barrymore, or the likes of him, the series would surely have flopped. The three plots going at once is typical of the series, and handled well by the director Harold S. Bucquet. The film, however, is badly named, because I couldn't tell for sure what Kildare's secret was. The audience is in on several of his deceptions: his quitting Gillespie to force him to rest; his not telling Helen Gilbert he was a doctor; and finally his lying to her about the treatment he was going to give her. Still, the film is fun to watch, especially if you've seen others films in the series and get to know how the various hospital characters interact.

Dr. Gillespie's health worsens and the work on a project with Dr. Kildare is taking its toll. In order to get him to take a rest, Dr. Kildare persuades the hospital to assign him to look after an heiress who believes she is dying.

Fourth of the ten films in the series and the third in which Lew Ayres plays Dr. Kildare. Quite entertaining but fans of the series will know what to expect and, as usual, Lionel Barrymore steals the show as Dr. Gillespie. Helen Gilbert plays the heiress.

In 1939's "The Secret of Dr. Kildare," the young doctor is faced with a tough decision. Dr. Gillespie's cancer has exacerbated, and he cannot continue his lab experiments as he once did. Of course, he's refusing to stop. So Kildare quits, knowing Gillespie can't do the work without him. He takes over instead the care of a young woman, Nancy Messenger (Helen Gilbert), who has some emotional issues. Her father (Lionel Atwill) isn't sure what to do about her, so Kildare gains her confidence and tries to get to the bottom of her problems. Meanwhile, Kildare's parents (Samuel S. Hinds and Emma Dunn) come to visit. It turns out that the senior Dr. K has a potentially terminal heart problem and has come to New York for a second opinion. This, too, is a Secret of Dr. Kildare - because he doesn't tell his son.

What made this series a great success was the interrelationships of the characters. Lionel Barrymore is a great Dr. Gillespie, and his relationship with Kildare, with his head nurse, Molly Byrd (Alma Kruger) and Dr. Carew (Walter Kingsford) are lively ones of affection cut with bellowing. Laraine Day is Mary Lamont, who's in love with Kildare, but things haven't really heated up between them yet. She, too, has her moments with Gillespie. At one point while recuperating from a weak spell, he asks her to order him a steak, baked potato and apple pie. Lamont never changes expression, picking up the phone to get him gruel and weak tea.

Though the plot line involving Nancy Messenger is oversimplified and not terribly realistic, this is nevertheless a good episode in the Kildare series. Some trivia - Helen Gilbert, who plays Nancy, in real life was married for one year to gangster Johnny Stompanato, Lana Turner's boyfriend who was killed by her daughter Cheryl.

The very watchable Dr. Kildare series is a refreshing and smart reality check for the matinee crowd, then as now, and has wisely been noted by others as a precursor to the modern medical TV dramas. But the one thing that spoils these otherwise well balanced (drama/wit/intellect) and well paced stories is the Conover character played by George Reed in this forced black stereotype "Amos and Andy" patronizing manner, instead of in the normal, everyday, regular guy way of talking, like the rest of the cast. Even the "Irish" bartender bit got over played racially in the series. You have to tell yourself this is the product of the times, but were all movie directors 'that' insensitive in the 1930's? Oh well, it is what it is, but it could have been much, much better without the negative racial portrayals.