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I saw this movie a few months ago, 2005. I, also, saw it in 1957 on our new black and white television.

The year this movie was made was 1943. There was a war going on and we needed heroes who could help keep the home fires burning and save the women and children. Doctors today can't do everything like Dr. Gillespie could. He was busy saving the lives of 4 little girls who are suffering, putting two young residents who are vying to be Gillespie's assistant in their proper places, messing up the love life of Dr.Red Adams (Van Johnson) and trying to help Marcia Bradburn (Donna Reed) by institutionalizing a murderer, her ex-fiancée Roy Todwell. He was making her life miserable by trying to keep her from marrying a young soldier. And to add interest to the situation Roy breaks out of prison. What's the good doctor to do? Will he be able to save the lives and mend the hearts of so many?

And when you realize that Lionel Barrymore is doing all this from a wheelchair then we must marvel. He had severe arthritis in both legs and had started using crutches when he starred in You Can't Take It With You (1938) with Jimmy Stewart and Edward Arnold. As his illness progressed the needed items to make his acting career easier to handle were written into the script.

I found it pretty entertaining since I had never even heard of these series, and found it sort of fun to watch them, I was able to see this one right after "Calling Dr. Gillespie" so it tied in with the prior movie. I found the two movies to at least have most of the same characters, and from what I saw from investigating some of the other movies in the series, many of them appear in those movies as well. At least there are constants in the series, I don't particularly like the same characters with different actors passing through to play them.

I didn't expect brain surgery here, just a little entertainment from long ago, little did I know there was so much film history to the Dr. Kildare shows before we turned on our TV sets to watch him every week. While starting to read about the Dr. Gillespie series I was a bit confused at first, not remembering Dr. Kildare in "Calling Dr. Gillespie" so it was also an education to find in the notes that after filming, the actor who had played that part for so long was a conscientious objector to WWII, therefore his part was eliminated and in walked Dr. John Hunter Gerniede and a change in the movie title. You just never know what kind of story lines there are behind the stories.

Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) continues testing Dr. Lee Wong How (Keye Luke) and Dr. Randall Adams (Van Johnson), both vying to be his new assistant. Meanwhile an epidemic breaks out in the hospital children's ward and psycho killer Roy Todwell breaks out of prison just as Gillespie is arguing to the prison board that Roy belongs in a mental hospital. All this plus a double amputee struggles to come to terms with his disability and a beautiful woman throws herself at Dr. Adams.

The third Gillespie movie follows up on the events of Calling Dr. Gillespie. Donna Reed returns and is even lovelier than before. The character of Roy was recast for some reason. The new actor, John Craven, isn't as creepy as the last one, Phil Brown. Craven is just kind of skeevy. Van Johnson and Keye Luke are both fun. Luke is once again given the wartime comments about Japs, as well as the subplot about a man who lost both his legs at Pearl Harbor. Beautiful Marilyn Maxwell has a sexy part as a wealthy hospital volunteer who comes onto Johnson very strongly. She would appear a couple more times in the series. Margaret O'Brien is cute as one of the sick kids. She was such a precocious little actress who did melodrama very well. It's an enjoyable entry in the series with more subplots than you can shake a stick at. Barrymore is terrific as usual.

Lionel Barrymore is the omniscient Dr. Gillespie in this episodic entry into the popular Dr. Kildare/Dr. Gillespie series.

The overworked doc has two ambitious men working under him, cute Van Johnson and charming Keye Luke, and they both want to be his top man.

Donna Reed is a beautiful young woman who comes to Gillespie for advice as the film begins - she wants to get married, but she's worried about a crazy man, crazy about her, who is now in jail for murder. Gillespie endeavors to get the man institutionalized.

He helps give a young man who lost his legs during the war have the will to continue; he saves four little girls in the children's' ward; wrecks Van Johnson's love life - it's all just business as usual for Dr. Gillespie of Blair General.

The cast is charming but this film is just too sweet for words, and Dr. Gillespie is a real fantasy character even for 1943.

I suppose with the war on, this is what America wanted to see. It's interesting that like our President at the time, Gillespie is also in a wheelchair, in a position of power, and larger than life.

MGM's Dr. Kildare second feature series continues without Dr. Kildare -- Lew Ayres was in the doghouse because of his antiwar stance since starring in 1930s ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and was serving as a medic.

In the meantime, the series carried on with Lionel Barrymore as the crusty Dr. Gillespie, with newcomers Van Johnson and Keye Luke competing for his favor as his interns. Keye Luke gets the silliest lines, as a partisan of Brooklyn. Van Johnson is interested in anatomy: female anatomy.

Unhappily, much of the feature is taken up with shtick like that, expertly delivered, but absolutely trivial and of little interest. Of more interest might be spotting other budding MGM talent including series regular Nat Pendleton, Donna Reed as a man-hungry temptress for Van Johnson, and Margeret O'Brien at her most waiflike. There is no subtlety in this movie. Director Goldbeck never got out of the Bs and this movie shows why. Unless you want to see the actors far below their best, you may not want to look at this. Most people will want to give this a miss.