Dr. Kildare Goes Home

... in that this one tries to tackle the issue of rural medicine and imbalances in patient care due to location versus focusing on an individual case or situation. This was a bit unusual in that so many Americans in 1940 might not live in big cities yet, but they weren't necessarily farmers either by this time.

Dr. Kildare (Lew Ayres) finishes his residency, but the happiness of that moment is short-lived when he finds out his father has been overworking himself to the point of exhaustion trying to take care of his own patients plus the patients in the neighboring town of Parkersville. The paper mill there closed and the doctors left, leaving Dr. Stephen Kildare to fill the void, and it's killing him. So Dr. Kildare - and Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) for that matter - lie to the elder Kildare and tell him Dr. Gillespie is going for a yearlong treatment for his health out west so that James Kildare will be free to help take the load off of his dad.

A possible solution is found in getting some doctors who can't find positions in New York to move to Parkersville and open a clinic in which everybody in the town pays a low fee every week in return for medical care when they need it. But they need the endorsement of a Parkersville town leader to convince the people of the plan's feasibility and he's dubious about the whole thing.

It's odd to see modern problems such as these - unemployment compromising community medical care, doctors not wanting to serve rural and semi-rural areas, and the unaffordability of going into private practice being discussed in a pre WWII film. An odd scene that was the type you usually didn't see pre WWII - Gillespie goes to a poor neighborhood to watch a black doctor operate on a patient using pioneering techniques. This sort of dignified role for an African American, even as short as this scene is, would not be common for another ten years.

"Dr. Kildare Goes Home," made in 1940, is a particularly interesting entry into the series.

Kildare, made a staff doctor, realizes that his dad (Samuel S. Hinds) is exhausted from keeping up with his practice and wants to help him. He takes some doctors who can't find jobs and they start a clinic in one of Kildare Sr.'s practice area.

The idea behind it is that everyone pays ten cents a week for medical care. This will keep the salaries paid and support the work needed on the ill people. Also, the emphasis of the clinic is on prevention and staying healthy.

This is health insurance today, which wants everyone to stay healthy and not need medical facilities. Instead of a dime, though, it's thousands per year. I did find that whole subject matter in 1940 fascinating.

The next fascinating thing is that Dr. Gillespie goes to watch a rare operation done by a brilliant black doctor (Jack Carr). Carr, a very well spoken actor, is uncredited in the film.

This is a different kind of depiction of blacks than one is used to seeing in these old movies, and it's similar to "Crash Dive," where a black member of the submarine unit is the same as everyone else.

These things make "Dr. Kildare Goes Home" a cut above, and the story moves along with Kildare and Mary setting the date.

I love the scenes between Mary Boyd (Alma Kruger) and Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) the best. When he compliments her appearance, he says, "You must have lost 15 pounds." She says, "I've gained eight. What do you want me to do that's illegal?" Highly entertaining.

Dr. Kildare Goes Home finds Lew Ayres being furloughed from Blair General Hospital in order to help out his ailing country physician father Samuel S. Hinds. With few other practicing physicians in the area Ayres has his hands full.

But in a truly bizarre twist, Ayres also finds three fellow doctors doing other kinds of work because they can't get a practice started. That part of the film is truly dated unless they're people from a third world country in America today. But such is the case in 1940.

What to do, but Ayres hits on the idea of establishing a clinic in his home town of Parkersville with these three. Of course the town's resistant to the idea because they think if medicine is good, it has to be expensive. That notion is certainly not dated. Leading proponent of that idea is Gene Lockhart who always seems to be playing these naysayers against progress when he's not a villain.

Like it does in so many medical dramas today on the small screen, it all comes together. The Dr. Kildare series was the forerunner of all the TV medical dramas from Medic to Marcus Welby including the small screen adaption of Dr. Kildare.

Ayres and Laraine Day as nurse Mary Lamont move ever closer to the wedding day with crusty old Lionel Barrymore as Kildare's mentor Dr. Gillespie giving his blessing. An OK programmer from this series out of MGM.

I was casually watching this movie today when the action shifted to an emergency surgery performed in a private home. Dr Gillespie was in attendance as was Dr. Kildare. The surgeon has his back to the camera. When he turns around he is black. Gillespie then proceeds to praise the surgeon and the surgeon responds with some thoughtful words. To see a black American treated so thoughtfully and well was simply amazing at this time in Hollywood. I couldn't find the doctor in the list of cast members. And there was no mention of the scene in the trivia section of th IMDB. The scene must have added to the script perhaps by an event that caused the writers to add it , but I'm speculating.

The fifth in MGM's excellent series of medical dramas centered around Doctors Kildare and Gillespie (Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore). This time around Jimmy Kildare is faced with the decision of giving up his dream job working with Dr. Gillespie in order to help out his elderly father, who's being overworked as the only doctor covering two small towns.

One of the weaker entries in the series but still very enjoyable. Most of the film is spent in Kildare's hometown away from the busy goings-on of Blair General. There are lots of quaint little parts, like Gillespie prescribing having kids to save a marriage. But these sorts of things are part of what I love about this series and really classic films in general -- they're windows into the past. Great supporting cast, as was always the case with MGM. In addition to Nat Pendleton and the rest of the exceptional regulars backing up Ayres and Barrymore, there's Gene Lockhart, Donald Briggs, and fun bit parts for Arthur O'Connell and Milton Parsons. Not my favorite or even in my top five of the combined Kildare/Gillespie series, but solid and never dull.