Not as a Stranger

I've just been treated to this wonderful film, courtesy of the wonderful TCM, and while it is not the best film ever made, and is indeed flawed, I can't believe this has been SO overlooked as it has!! This takes place in then-modern day 1955, which, if you think about it, is just after the Korean war. I'm a BIG fan of the TV series "M*A*S*H," so a film mostly concerning surgeons in the mid-'50s has GOT to interest me. But the real surprise here is that, as popular as giant stars like Robert Mitchum, Olivia de Havilland, Frank Sinatra, and Broderick Crawford were at the time of this film's release, more hasn't been said about it since then. In other words, I should've heard of it long before now.

Mitchum and Sinatra are chums at a medical school, and their prime professor is Crawford. Mitchum is the student EXTREMELY determined to become a doctor, as opposed to Sinatra and other friends, who are pretty half-assed in their desires. Then, Mitchum finds he's having troubles coming up with enough money to finance the tuition for his next year of education. Suddenly, he meets and falls in love with a Swedish nurse, who has plenty of money to help him through the hard times. So Mitchum then marries the lady. Mitchum's friend Sinatra thinks this is a bad thing to do, and tells him so, but life goes on. Like I said, this is not a movie without flaws, but it's so full of rich performances and a cast of unbelievable stars of past and present (hey, when was the last time you saw the Little Rascals' Alfalfa and the Beverly Hillbillies' Miss Jane in the same movie?). This is so totally worth seeing. As a fan of old movies, and having a total appreciation for Mitchum, Sinatra, Ms. de Havilland and Crawford, this was an unexpected joy to behold. ***, out of ****

Many have panned Robert Mitchum's performance in this film, but I think that his lack of expression and emotion, other than anger, suits the character very well.

Mitchum's Marsh is a completely self-absorbed individual. He's committed to medicine and can't understand human failings, especially his own. His character's cold demeanor perfectly reflects the fact that Marsh has no outer life. If he often appears robotic, it's largely because he's programmed himself to shut out everything human, ironically in service to humanity.

Of course he's a great doctor, but he's pure hell to work or live with. Bursting with pride, insensitive to the point of cruelty, Marsh is unreachable and, in more than one sense of the term, untouchable. Mitchum conveys all of this very naturally, perhaps because so much of his performance is rooted in the dark world of film noir, where the actor first made his mark. He's a physician from the neck up, but he has the heart of a contract killer. That he heals instead of kills is his patients' good fortune, though of little solace to his friends or his wife.

Although Mitchum's interpretation remains controversial, many of the other performances in `Not as a Stranger' are beyond criticism. Olivia deHavilland, as his suffering spouse, is superb as always. Charles Bickford, an actor who deserves a much greater reputation, is the epitome of a small town doctor. And surprisingly, Broderick Crawford is excellent as a gruff professor of pathology.

On the other hand, Frank Sinatra's pediatrician isn't as strong, though he has some good scenes when he tries to help Mitchum see the error of his ways. Gloria Grahame, unfortunately, is stuck with a seductress role that just as well could have been cut.

There are other weaknesses. George Antheil's score, by way of Wagner and Richard Strauss, is pretty hard to take. The script and direction are uneven. Many scenes are compelling, such as when Crawford literally throws the book at Sinatra or when deHavilland and Mitchum have one of their confrontations. Others fall flat and there is a tendency, typical in most of Stanley Kramer's work, to keep making points at the expense of the story. For example, the med school sequences with Whit Bissell's greedy and unethical Dr Dietrich (interesting choice of name there) cover a darker side of the profession very well. There's really no need for Jesse White, terribly miscast as a lawyer who cozies up to Grahame, to bring up ethical issues much later in the film.

Recommended as an above average melodrama and as an interesting time capsule of mid-50s medicine. (Though I found it hard to believe patients were allowed to smoke in the wards!)

Nicely cast melodrama from the 1950s with the notable exception of Robert Mitchum in the lead. Despite the miscasting, Mitchum does deliver a strong performance, but I think Kirk Douglas would have done far more with the role of Lucas Marsh.

Olivia DeHavilland has a very convincing Swedish accent in her role as the 30s something nurse who marries Mitchum for love when he's courting her for her money so he can finish medical school. And that's really where the story begins. Mitchum's Lucas Marsh wants that medical career so bad, he'll do anything for it. He's arrogant, self-centered, and when he falls away from the ideal that he sees himself as, it's a come down. Whether having to apologize to Whit Bissell when he challenges him in class, or giving way to passion when he's unfaithful to DeHavilland with Gloria Grahame, he destroys himself bit by bit. When Mitchum makes a mistake in an operation that costs the life of his benefactor Charles Bickford, he's close to suicidal. In the end we're really not sure he's going to live with himself.

The rest of the cast is outstanding. Frank Sinatra in a role similar to Angelo Maggio in From Here to Eternity functions well as Mitchum's conscience. I also have to single out Lon Chaney, Jr. who in his one scene in the movie as Mitchum's father, delivers one of his best performances.

In the recent biography of Robert Mitchum, Baby I Don't Care, the author says that Stanley Kramer unknowingly assembled one of the biggest group of booze hounds in Hollywood. Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Broderick Crawford, Myron McCormick, and Lon Chaney, Jr. were all legendary in the drinking profession. But God Bless Stanley Kramer who managed to get them all working on a good piece of film making.

"Not as a Stranger" is an old fashioned medical melodrama. The basic plot involves a young man (Mitchum) who is obsessed with becoming a doctor. Unfortunately, his obsession causes pain and unhappiness for the people around him.

Naturally, much of the medical material is out of date. Some commonplace matters in 1955 now strike us as incredible: a medical class with no women in it; doctors and nurses casually smoking; doctors who ride on ambulances.

The "small town" to which Mitchum moves after graduating from medical school is portrayed as isolated and rural. What we see is clearly a small city--bad choice of location.

In the context of the film,we have to accept Olivia de Havilland as plain and unsophisticated. Quite a suspension of disbelief.

However, Mitchum is excellent as the young physician who expects perfection from himself and all those around him, and Frank Sinatra is a good choice as Mitchum's cynical--but caring--friend.

Broderick Crawford as the medical professor Dr. Aarons, and Charles Bickford as Dr. Dave Runkleman, Mitchum's senior partner, both turn in solid performances.

Gloria Grahame is perfect as the wealthy widow, Harriet Lang, who oozes sexuality out of every alcoholic pore.

Watch for the dramatic scene when Crawford throws Grey's Anatomy at Sinatra. (Although beware the message that great medicine is synonymous with great memory. Memory is where great medicine starts, not where it ends.)

Two scenes need special comment:

When Mitchum tells a patient with a facial mole, "This kind is best left alone," he is wrong, wrong, wrong.

When Mitchum takes over the care of a critically ill patient of another doctor, Mitchum is right, right, right.

This movie is dated, but it is still worth seeing. Rent it and find out!

Very good black and white Doctor Film. Robert Mitchim does a fine job playing a dedicated doctor. He proves that he can play a sensitive character as well as a cowboy or detective. Broderick Crawford was well cast as a teaching Pathologist. Mr. Crawfords ability to play an overbearing and intense individual suits his character quite well. Operating room and Hospital Ward scenes were well done as this is now a 55 year old Movie. It remarkable how much the medical profession as advanced in innovations and equipment in a little more than half a century. Worth watching especially if you are a Mitchim fan. It is one of the better films of the fifties where they don't over due lighting up and smoking one Cigarete after another. Harry