Society Doctor

... to quote Bill Murray in "Tootsie". This is just not any 30's hospital drama, for this one has some touches that remind me of David Lynch. For one thing, Robert Taylor, who is so smooth in his later leading roles, has apparently been directed to play it a bit odd when he has moments alone with the leading lady. It's impossible to pay attention to his dialogue with all of the strange and unnatural gestures he's making and his weird facial expressions. He acts like a high school kid on his first date. Oddly enough, this is the film that convinced Louis B. that Robert Taylor deserved to be promoted to leading roles.

Chester Morris, who I love in just about every movie I've ever seen him in, holds his own in this one too as Dr. Robert Morgan, whom Robert Taylor's character looks up to like a big brother. Morgan has some strange ideas about romance and physicians - he believes that a doctor only has room in his life for floozies and meal tickets when it comes to women, and he finds his meal ticket - at least for awhile - in the person of Mrs. Crane (Billie Burke) a hypochondriac society lady who decides to back Morgan's entry into private practice. He sits bored in a chair in the matron's hospital room, looking like the puppet on a string he has become, as she goes on and on about how to decorate his new office. Hilarious. Billie Burke's ditzy touch is just what this film needs to let you know this entire thing is being played tongue in cheek.

The weirdest part of the film is when an escaped convict/gangster shoots Morgan and then Morgan, still semi-conscious, directs his own surgery while looking in a mirror so he can personally supervise the rerouting of his insides. Will he survive? Only the "MGM News" boy knows for sure! That's right, this film didn't even give the daily newspaper showing us the outcome of the surgery a credible name, they just use it for some shameless promotion and an obvious joke by calling it the "MGM News".

I could fill three more paragraphs about what is so wrong yet so entertainingly offbeat about this film, but I think you get the idea. Recommended for the weirdness of it all. Just don't come to this expecting a fore-runner to Doctor Kildare.

Decent mid-1930's MGM drama, but this ain't no Robert Taylor vehicle...this is a Chester Morris film.

Morris' career faltered around the time that Taylor's career was taking off. This is a shame since Chester was a much better actor than Taylor could ever hope to be.

This film has a great supporting cast including Billie Burke, Henry Kolker, and Virginia Bruce does a nice job as the female lead.

I saw this film on TCM and if you see it listed, I suggest you give it a chance.

It's no classic, but a good solid period film.

Very watchable film dealing with the moral and emotional struggles of an inner city intern, Dr. Morgan, effectively played by Chester Morris. Robert Taylor as Dr. Ellis and Virginia Bruce as Nurse Madge complete a love triangle with Morris that serves as the film's centerpiece. The movie is very nicely filmed - I love the look of hospitals in films from the thirties and forties; they seem so very clean and orderly, nothing like the messy Emergency Rooms we are accustomed to seeing on screen nowadays. Though a tad bit slow at times for the modern viewer, this is a solid piece of melodrama; a great film to watch on a rainy afternoon.

An ambulances rushes a patient to the busy "Metropolitan Hospital" where young doctor Chester Morris (as Bill Morgan) works. He and likewise handsome Robert Taylor (as Tommy Ellis) think likewise young William Henry (as Frank Snowden) needs an immediate appendectomy, but the patient's father wants to wait until his regular doctor arrives. In order to save Mr. Henry's life, Mr. Morris performs the surgery. While grateful, the hospital dismisses Morris for brashly offending his elders. Wealthy hypochondriac Billie Burke (as Mrs. Crane) has Morris reinstated. She also offers him a job as "Society Doctor" for socially prominent older women who suffer from mostly imaginary ailments...

You'll have to watch and see if Morris sticks to saving lives at "Metropolitan" or takes the easy job of tending to lonely rich women. Watching along are best pal Taylor and pretty blonde girlfriend Virginia Bruce (as Madge). Taylor is also in love with Ms. Bruce. Just before the story starts to slow down, something shocking occurs at the hospital. The film moves fast and is appealingly presented. Interestingly, Morris and Taylor strip to their waists to scrub before operating. Their physiques are admirable. There is no lingerie scene for Bruce, but she is nonetheless fetching. And hospitals in the 1930s had no guidelines restricting tobacco smoking and alcohol consumption in the workplace, evidently.

****** Society Doctor (1935-01-25) George B. Seitz ~ Chester Morris, Robert Taylor, Virginia Bruce, Billie Burke

It would take another 30 years before we would see another doctor like Chester Morris plays in Society Doctor and that would be on the small screen instead of the big one. Vincent Edwards might have seen what Chester Morris did in this film as the talented, but tactless surgeon and Morris could well have been his model for Ben Casey.

Society Doctor is the story of a pair of doctors in a large hospital, one like Morris very dedicated to his profession and the other being the up and coming Robert Taylor who has the talent, but wants to enjoy life as well. Both are courting Virginia Bruce who looks ravishing in her nurse's uniform.

There are quite a few plot lines running through this story the main one involving Morris and his career choices. He's stepping on a lot of toes at the hospital, but he's managed to make a friend of society woman and hypochondriac Billie Burke who's willing to bankroll him in a private practice. She wants to make him a Society Doctor.

But a few medical crises at the hospital and the possible loss of Bruce to Taylor who were seeing each other in real life at this time kind of make Morris's choices clear.

Robert Taylor has an interesting scene in Society Doctor where he explains he's undergone a transformation of character and now wants to be a serious doctor, as serious as his pal Morris is. The scene was well done and I'm certain that Carl Laemmle over at Universal must have seen it and thought that the young man would have been perfect casting for the lead in Magnificent Obsession which is a film entirely based on such a transformation. In any event a lot of people noticed Robert Taylor after Society Doctor, of that I'm sure.

Society Doctor holds up very well and packs a lot into its short 63 minute running time. And it seems to have influenced a few people in their careers.