Receta de amor

On her way to Chicago, beautiful brunette Ruth Hussey (as Hedy) picks up three hitchhiking Marines named Tom, Dick and Harry. Their last names are Smith, Smith and Smith. Stopping to visit her hometown, Ms. Hussey notices tall, dark and handsome John Carroll (as Morgan Hale) and thinks he is her childhood friend Smedley "Smed" Hoover. He's not. Hussey's uncle, kindly country doctor Charles Ruggles (as J.H. "Doc" Fredericks), is overworked and wants his niece to stay in town...

Hussey is a physician, plastic surgeon and psychologist. When Mr. Carroll falls in love with her, the men conspire to keep Hussey around. Carroll pretends he has a screw loose. This is a surreally-written Andrew Stone-directed comedy. Hussey and Carroll are a charming pair. Esther Dale (as Gravitt) and the supporting characters are all fine. Re-titled "Her Favorite Patient" and available on budget labels, this breezy "Bedside Manner" should be afforded a restoration and higher profile.

******* Bedside Manner (6/8/45) Andrew Stone ~ Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Charles Ruggles, Ann Rutherford

For a film from PRC, a VERY small and rather dubious film company, "Bedside Manner" is a surprisingly good film. Now I am NOT saying it's a really good film--just compared to the usual PRC offering. While the film has some very nice moments and a surprisingly good cast, the overall product seems to try too hard to be funny and seems very forced to say the least.

The film begins with a doctor (Ruth Hussey) driving back to her old childhood home. Along the way, she picks up three military guys (all named Smith) and takes them with her. As far as I am concerned, this subplot and presence of these three was completely unnecessary to the film. Regardless, somewhere along the way, she meets a guy (John Carroll) who reminds her of someone and she makes his life pretty miserable. Oddly (and with no apparent reason), he soon falls in love with her but knows she's supposed to leave the next day for Chicago. So, he and her uncle concoct a plan to keep her--he will pretend to be crazy and she'll be forced to stay and treat him (even though she is a plastic surgeon!!).

If all this sounds sort of like an episode of "Laverne and Shirley", you'd be right on the mark. The film tries so hard to be goofy that it really falls apart. It's a shame, as having them fall in love might have worked--had they set the stage for WHY he wanted her in the first place and if they hadn't come up with the cockeyed bit about him losing his mind. It's all very forced. Watchable but forced!

Director Andrew Stone is considered by some cinéastes as an auteur predicated upon his later work, but this frothy piece is an example made during his earlier period, now available on an Alpha DVD that provides a more than merely acceptable print, utilizing the film's 1950 reissue, titled anew as HER FAVORITE PATIENT under the banner of Astor Pictures, with its rather disjointed plot, after Robert Carson's Saturday Evening Post story, offset by solid performances contributed by cast and crew members. Produced and directed by Stone, the movie is too silly to be dislikeable, depicting a visit to her Midwestern hometown by physician Hedy Fredericks (Ruth Hussey) while on the way to her research position with a Chicago institute. Her uncle, also a doctor, one of only two serving the burgeoning community, is overworked and desires that his niece remain in the town and aid with his practice, but Hedy is very resistant to that idea until her resolve is weakened after she meets a dashing test pilot, Morgan Hale (John Carroll) who, along with her "Uncle Doc" (Charles Ruggles) develop a scheme that, by hopefully eliminating any desire to continue on to Chicago, will enable Hedy to not only assume a portion of local medical responsibilities, but also to favour Morgan's not unwelcome romantic advances. Talented Hussey finds naught to tax her accomplished sense of comic timing, and costumes created for the slender star are first rate; Carroll is oddly appealing in an uncustomary comedic role; Ann Rutherford and Renee Godfrey stand out among many skilled supporting female players; Grant Mitchell effortlessly performs as Hale's boss; veteran character actor Frank Jenks heads a trio of amourous Marines; and pleasing turns come from Syd Saylor, mouthing bromides, and Earle Hodgins, a past master of garrulity. Efficient editing by Cecil De Mille alumnus James Smith is specially valuable for the film's pacing, as is fine sound quality engendered by Frank Webster, while the interior decor of Jacque Mapes and overall art direction under Rudi Feld also enhance this pleasant soufflé wherein occasional weakly composed dialogue is handled crisply by director Stone.

Beside Manner has Dr. Ruth Hussey on her way to Chicago to take a position in a big hospital. But she stops in her small Illinois hometown to visit her uncle Charlie Ruggles who is also a physician.

Ruggles is having trouble keeping is head above water. With a war plant now in his town and being one of only two doctors he's got more practice than he can handle. Ruggles does more than hint he'd like her to stay. But doing a better job of keeping her around is John Carroll who is a test pilot for the product the factory turns out.

This is a pleasant come which has the look and feel of an MGM B picture, mostly because a lot of the players are from MGM. One of those is Ann Rutherford who adds a serious note of being a pretty girl who suffered burns in a factory accident. This one kind of reminded me of my own mother who took a job in Bausch&Lomb factory part time after school during the same years as this film was out. We were a united people then trying to defeat a most gruesome and determined foe.

This cast gives a great ensemble performance and Bedside Manner is a great piece of nostalgia from the WW2 years of the 40s.