Dr. Cook's Garden

A very popular series of the time was 'Marcus Welby' where the all wise, all knowing doctor educated his patients out of their pride, prejudice, and folly in resisting his counsel. The doctor is wise. The doctor is all knowing. The doctor is only here to help.

1971, and indeed, the era of the Warren Court represented a high water mark of the notion that we can have a perfect society if we just turn loose experts and therapists guided by the social sciences on our problems. The intelligentsia then were absolutely certain of the ability of the social sciences to rehabilitate all criminals, to end poverty, to end racial inequality, to make a perfect land. All we had to do was use the tools of the social sciences to fix the 'root causes'.

This film was a marvelous criticism of that zeitgeist. Dr Cook is the ultimate therapist. He is only there to help.

One of the amazing films of the ABC Tuesday Night at the Movies, Bing Crosby starts out as a Kervorkian style doctor but crosses the line as he begins to make judgments on who in his small town must live or die based on their conduct. Chilling and foretelling.

1970's "Dr. Cook's Garden" was an ABC-TV Movie of the Week (broadcast Jan. 19, 1971), boasting the unexpected casting of Hollywood icon Bing Crosby in the challenging title role of Dr. Leonard Cook, who takes the same kind of pride in his country town as in his personal garden. As the only physician in the Vermont community of Greenfield, the nearest hospital 30 miles away, he has no qualms about making house calls even in the middle of the night, welcoming home one of his former patients, Jimmy Tennyson (Frank Converse), who once idolized him as a child, now a capable, full fledged doctor in his own right. What Tennyson isn't expecting is Cook's rejection of him as a replacement, tensions rising over the huge amount of poison in his locked cabinet, and the curious terminology between his flowers and his patients (the letter 'R' stands for 'Removal'). The philosophical question of how to save lives by taking them is the centerpiece of this Ira Levin story, first produced as a flop Broadway play in 1967 (closing after only 8 performances), with Burl Ives as the old doctor, Keir Dullea his younger counterpart, James Stewart up for the Ives role in a proposed feature film. What makes it work is the offbeat presence of Crosby, as an actor best remembered as the benevolent priest Father O'Malley in "Going My Way" and "The Bells of St. Mary's," whose facade of compassion comes off as believably genuine, until the threat of exposure brings out his more dangerous, self centered side. By contrast, Frank Converse's one note performance fails to truly resonate as a figure for audience identification, inevitably the loser in his confrontations opposite the redoubtable Bing (the lovely Blythe Danner comes off better in a subordinate role as Cook's dedicated nurse).

Bing is effective. The plot is spread a little thin as the beginning is drawn out with a lot if inane dialogue.

The real treat is seeing how stunning Blythe Danner and Frank Converse were in their prime.

Bing Crosby, with beautiful silver hair and a new goatee to make him look old, stars as the title character in this entertaining tv flick Dr. Cook's Garden. He's a lovable country doctor connected to everyone in the town; perfect casting, right? I love how Bing makes everything better. If he were my doctor, I'd actually look forward to going!

Frank Converse returns to town after a five year absence while being in medical school, and he completely ruins the movie. It's not really his fault as an actor; his character is written to be a suspicious, mean, disloyal creep. He's supposed to be completely devoted to Bing, who treated like a father, but as soon as he gets back in town, he starts getting suspicious as to Bing's medical methods. Who does he think he is?

Frank aside, this is an enjoyable movie that will make you talk with your friends afterwards about morality, loyalty, and justice. Bing is excellent, with a multi-faceted performance combined with the charm he's had for decades. It's rare to catch him in a drama, so check this one out if you like him.