L'Étrange Cas du docteur Kildare

Yup, that's right folks... in a supposed sterile hospital, a speedy little mouse dashes across the top of the dividing curtain right behind the beautiful face of of nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) exactly 40min into the movie. Although MGM did not plan this squeekers debut, it was certainly no less jarring than the act of doctors and nurses lighting up cigarettes here, there and everywhere including the surgery suite! But the weirdest whopper is a stunner when they instantly diagnose "insanity" after only hearing a few words the patient mumbles within seconds of waking in an post - anesthetic haze following a serious brain operation. After half a sentence is uttered they pronounce "this man has lost his mind". It's all par for the course in 1940's era medicine gone mad film fun. Incredibly "insulin shock" was actually a viable therapy for mental illness decades ago ...INCLUDING the procedure's ghastly contortion descriptions and its outlandish " backwards evolution" premise. It's staggering to observe Dr. Kildare (Lew Ayers) basically sleepwalk through actions that defy all ethical, moral, and legal codes today, ... and which naturally makes it a terrific watch!

The supporting cast of character actors deliver some hilarious lines. Although Kildare's Sherlock style investigations on behalf of Dr. Lane (Sheppard Strudwick) are altruistic, I can't understand why they didn't just run a "do you know this man?" picture in the newspapers or even call the police?.

Give this mangled medical drama a peek. It's short and certainly has many angles of interest and especially behold the quips that spring from Dr. Kildare's mother.

For this fourth entry of the fifteen feature films in the much admired Dr. Kildare series, the regular assemblage of talented M-G-M supporting players enlivens a somewhat rambling plot, with acting honours shared by Lionel Barrymore as young Kildare's overseer, curmudgeonly Dr. Gillespie, and Laraine Day, cast as nurse Mary Lamont who has an eye upon James Kildare (Lew Ayres) as spousal material. James, diagnostic intern at "Blair General Hospital" finds he has a rival for Mary's affections in brain surgeon Gregory Lane (Shepperd Strudwick), whose losing streak of dying surgical subjects brings out the compassionate best from the eponymous hero who, clandestinely with Mary's aid, applies the sticky method of insulin shock (accepted at the time of filming as valid) to a Lane patient in order to correct his condition of dementia, possibly caused by Lane's procedure, while at the same time hoping to save the surgeon's waning reputation. The film was successful upon its release due to audience perception that a graphic depiction of the sanctum within a major hospital is being revealed; it benefits from splendid cinematography of John Seitz, and also the familiar sterling cast of the series including those mentioned as well as Frank Orth, Nat Pendleton and Samuel Hinds as the senior Kildare, in addition to a raft of other performing stalwarts.

Dr. James Kildare (Lew Ayres) works at Blair General Hospital with his nurse girlfriend Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) and his wheelchair-bound mentor Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) who is battling cancer. He is concerned that Gillespie is not fighting hard enough. He rejects a high paying job to stay with Gillespie which frustrates Mary. Dr. Gregory Lane (Shepperd Strudwick) is a struggling brain surgeon. When Lane's patient seems to turn insane from sugery, Kildare takes on the strange case.

This is the fifth Dr. Kildare film. The various dramas of the main cast is fine. I do wonder about the strange case. I'm guessing that psychology is still undeveloped during this time. This is definitely a case for a psychiatrist or a brain specialist. Apparently, he just needed a sugary snack and a meeting with his wife. I'm no doctor, but this case is a little too strange.

This entry into the Dr. Kildare series was enjoyable but not as compelling for this reviewer as other installments were.

As usual, Dr. Gillespie allows Dr. Jimmy Kildare to think that Jimmy is making his own decisions, all the while being controlled by the octogenarian.

Nurse Mary Lamont has not yet landed the good doctor, and here is dating Dr. Lane the brain surgeon and our beloved Dr. Kildare.

Once again, Dr. Kildare's parents make an appearance, and Ma Kildare once again gives her son her willing shoulder to lean upon. The series always showed a close parent-child relationship, especially between Jimmy and his mother.

Dr. Kildare must make a decision in this entry which could derail his entire career at Blair General Hospital. This type of plot line would be handled in a much more serious manner today, but it was interesting to see how it was handled back in 1940.

Which is very similar to electro convulsive therapy (ECT), which they still performed in the early 90s when attended certain, ah, institutions. Back then they were run by charter health systems, which I believe went out of business. The last time I was ever there was in 1999 and it reverted back to the control of the local hospital in that area. But that was the year "managed care" came into its full authority, turning the mental hospitals into nothing better than prisons, and they had actually erected a very high fence around the grounds of the campus and put guards on all the entrances. And this was one of those hospitals where the patients have all chosen to be in there, but instead they have turned it into a locked ward. Because of managed care the quality of care has dwindled greatly. Ironically this film shows a hospital where psychiatric patients share the same ward with regular patients.

As far as the hospital where I was treated, I know that they had an ECT room, and I used to have long discussions with a patient there who was undergoing continuous treatment. I had several discussions with my own doctor about it and that was when he explained the difference between the insulin treatment and ECT.

In this film dr. Kildair explains it as a type of regression back into the primitive reptilian brainstem, the root of most animal's "Feed, Fight, and Reproduce" drive for existence. The way Dr. Kildair explains it here, is almost exactly the way it was explained it to me.

Thank goodness that this archaic form of therapy is no longer used as it is both demeaning and humiliating.

But it was surprising to see this treatment accurately described and depicted, every once in a while in these old 1940s comedies that were loosely based on reality, they will come out with something very accurate and hit the nail right on the head.

Along with the medical and psychiatric aspects of this film there are comedic aspects that are examples of "how to get your girl back from a rich suiter who takes her to dinner is where they have two dollar soup", The person giving out this wisdom is of course the host of the café next to the hospital, who is as wise with "street psychiatry" as Dr. Gillespie is with regular psychiatry in his manipulation of Dr. Kildare and his nurse girlfriend, and the way Dr. Gillespie cleverly gets Kildare to turn down a better paying job.

But what I loved about these series is how Dr. Gillespie, even though he was ill and confined to a wheelchair (just like the real Lionel Barrymore), and basically facing mortality in the eye, had a great sense of humor about it.

I love every single one of these, I wish there had been more made.