Les blouses blanches

The Young Doctors is a low-key medical drama involving (among other things) the clash between an older pathologist Dr. Pearson (Frederic March) and a younger doctor Dr. Coleman (Ben Gazarra) who challenges his authority and medical know-how. March is excellent as the crusty, experienced older doctor who is forced to confront his own aging and fading medical competence. Gazarra's youth and rebelliousness provides the perfect foil for him. The film also features one of my favorite character actresses, Aline MacMahon, as a one of the hospital's few female MDs. The weakest acting is by Dick Clark as Dr. Coleman, whose RH positive baby provides a harrowing dramatic moment in the film. This is a slow-moving black and white film, but it's surprisingly engrossing.

While there are many movies about medicine (and there have been before this), I loved this one in particular thanks to the direction, the acting and the plot, very unique for a movie set in a hospital. I liked also the black and white cinematography because it truly fits the movie's dramatic moments.

The film is set in an hospital, with Fredric March as Dr. Pearson, the head pathologist that has many years of experience and teaches the job to the young students. Meanwhile arrives the new assistant, Dr. Coleman (played by Ben Gazzara) and tries to convince Pearson to use new and innovative medical strategies. But soon, they have a clash of ideas thanks to two serious cases.

I have to agree with user bkoganbing: medical dramas are sometimes similar to courtroom dramas because they both deal with life and death issues. The uniqueness of the movie is that is set in the Pathology lab, a rarely seen part of the hospital.

The cast is maybe one of the best ensemble cast ever found in a medical drama. Fredric March and Ben Gazzara shine as the two main characters, two doctors that after clashes they turn to be very human, and in the end they respect each other. Ina Balin (in the same year of THE COMANCHEROS) is a young nurse that has also a severe medical condition, and falls for Gazzara's character. Dick Clark stars as a young medic with a pregnant wife that battles to keep the baby alive.

But the real standout in the movie is Eddie Albert in his most underrated performance: as doctor Dornberger, the pediatrician that saves Dick Clark's newborn son. You can see all of Albert's seriousness and dedication in the job by the sweat crawling in his skin. And he succeds in saving the baby and making him take his first steps in the world.

In the cast also Edward Andrews as another doctor, George Segal (in his debut) as March's assistant and Aline McMahon as March's friend.

Still, this is a truly unique and pleasant movie (although forgotten nowadays) that also kept my interest until the end.

Watching The Young Doctors again after many years, I was struck by the film's no nonsense approach to the vagaries of medicine. While circumstances-and science have changed in the intervening 47 years since the movies' initial release, the drama of life and death in a hospital, as trite as that sounds, plays out with earnestness and poignancy. Ben Gazarra plays pathologist David Coleman, assigned to a lab headed by the incumbent Doctor Pearson.(Fredric March.) Pearson, (played to perfection by March), resents the younger man's attempts to modernize the antiquated path lab. The push-pull dynamic between the two men is believable,even if it does, at times, creep toward cheesiness. Coleman's budding relationship with nurse Cathy Hunt (Ina Balin), has to hit the right note, as their interaction figures prominently in the climax of the story. Both actors are up to the task, especially Gazarra, who makes his character live and breathe-and be real. The poignant scene of an exhausted Eddie Albert as a doctor trying to give a dying infant a chance at life resonates-even today. I found the film compelling and genuinely moving, just as I did when I saw it for the first time.

The Young Doctors (1961), directed by Phil Karlson from a novel by Arthur Hailey, is one of the few films I've ever seen that highlights the work done by pathologists.

The plot lines are fairly predictable, but they hold your interest. The acting ranges from excellent (Fredric March) to adequate (Ben Gazzara) to barely adequate (Dick Clark) to inadequate (Ina Balin). (Aline MacMahon as Dr. Lucy Grainger does extremely well in a supporting role.)

The medicine that we see has held up pretty well over 43 years. However, the initial case review in which March demonstrates his "take no prisoners" approach actually was not mismanaged.

Despite the weakness of "The Young Doctors," it held our attention and brought out emotional responses.

It's not worth a special trip to find it, but if you see the film offered for rental, you could do much worse.

"The Young Doctors" is a 1961 film that is primarily about an old doctor (Frederic March) and a young doctor (Ben Gazzara). Gazzara, as David Coleman, comes to work in the pathology lab, the universe of Dr. Pearson (March), who resents this young whippersnapper's attempts to update the practices and equipment. It's the practicality vs. the idealism of youth - the budget, the energy fighting with the board, all of which Dr. Pearson is all too familiar. He makes it clear that he's not about to be driven out, either.

There are two subplots - one concerns Cathy (Ina Balin), a nursing student whom Coleman falls in love with; and Dr. Alexander (Dick Clark) and his wife, whose baby is born with erythroblastosis. This is the most dramatic, emotional, and suspenseful part of the film as the baby's doctor (Eddie Albert) transfuses the child. You really hold your breath.

This is a well-acted film, if a little bit predictable and dated, with excellent performances by March, Gazzara, Balin, and Albert. Dick Clark could have been a stronger presence. Aline MacMahon, a real old-timer, does a great job as a surgeon.

Recommended.