Fra due donne

Franchot Tone is the doctor Between Two Women. He's a promising surgeon in love with nurse Maureen O'Sullivan, but she's married to Anthony Nace who is an abusive loser. But when he gets socialite Virginia Bruce as a patient her glamor bedazzles him. He's married to Bruce soon enough and there's O'Sullivan carrying around a Statue Of Liberty size torch for Tone.

As by this time the Code is firmly in place there are certain parameters to be observed before true love finds a way. The whole film plays like an overlong episode from General Hospital. And speaking of hospitals sharp eyed movie fans will recognize the sets from Blair General Hospital in the Dr. Kildare series. No way Louis B. Mayer was going to allow those to stand idly by while they were between Kildare pictures.

The three leads and the supporting cast MGM gave them do a fine job in this medical soap opera. We've seen it all before.

Sudsy melodrama in which the personable Franchot Tone plays a surgeon who finds the constant demands of his profession placing an unsustainable strain on his marriage to wealthy socialite Virginia Bruce. The delectable nurse Maureen O'Sullivan is on hand to cushion the blow once the inevitable happens. Ok, but unremarkable soap - kind of fun, though, to see doctors sharing booze and cigarettes with patients in their hospital rooms.

I have read quite a few reviews by bkoganbing and have been pretty impressed by their insights. Before seeing "Between Two Women", I read their review and it seemed to really well sum up the picture...though I think I liked the picture a bit more.

The film is from MGM, the studio that began their Dr. Kildare series that same year and I saw quite a bit of similarities between this film and the Kildare ones. Both are about a very decent and competent surgeon and both have some soap opera elements as well. So, in other words, I'm saying that if you like one, you'll likely like the other!

Franchot Tone plays Dr. Allan Meighan...a dedicated and extremely competent surgeon at the General Hospital. One of his patients is a society girl, Patricia Sloan (Virginia Bruce), and she is simply gaga over him. Eventually, she proposes to him and he agrees provided she accept that he is still a surgeon and his job comes first. Well, despite this agreement, she proves herself to be a spoiled brat...and makes balancing his life very difficult.

The marital problems all comes to a head when Meighan is pulled into a particular case. It seems Dr. Walcott has a god complex and is planning on amputating the leg of a patient...the husband of a nurse who also happens to be infatuated with Meighan. Now the nurse is NOT inappropriate and keeps her feelings to herself...but she is beside herself. She insists to Walcott that he wait to operate in order to get a second opinion. Well, he refuses and starts hacking away...and in the midst of the surgery, Meighan enters the operating room and slugs Walcott...which he was more than justified in doing, as the butcher refused to give way and let Meighan examine the patient. It turns out that due to Walcott's incompetence, the patient dies! And, as a result, Walcott loses his license...something he amply earned. However, Meighan's wife inexplicably sides with Walcott...showing just how vicious she really is...and insists that the Doc essentially put his work aside to play with her. Dr. Meighan realizes his marriage was a sad mistake. Since this is a soapy film, there is far more to it....and it's all very exciting and what you might expect from such a film!

Overall, I really liked this one. The story, though soapy, was really enjoyable and kept my interest. Plus, the acting was really nice--especially Tone, Bruce and Maureen O'Sullivan as the nurse. Very well made...and well worth seeing.

Franchot Tone and Maureen O'Sullivan are in love, but also enmeshed in unsuccessful marriages. The demands of their work together--he as a doctor, she as a nurse--draw them closer together as the plot unfolds, as do the failings in their personal lives, but these two noble healthcare professionals have enough on their hands and avoid straying into the messy business of an affair.

There aren't any surprises in this picture, but there are exceptional performances from everyone involved and the script is tight and the plot engrossing. This picture is very similar to "Men In White" (1934), which starred Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, being about the dilemma a young surgeon can face making hard choices between personal and professional demands. But whereas the earlier picture sometimes came across as rather heavy-handed, with working in the hospital seeming unrelievedly oppressive, this picture is a bit lighter in treatment and makes good use of Leonard Penn's role as the irresponsible surgeon, Tony Woolcott, a dramatic foil to Tone's straight-and-true Meighan.

Virginia Bruce is perfect as the high society playgirl who at first falls madly in love with Tone, but soon tires of his dedication to his work. Her beautiful face--especially her eyes--are center stage when that's all we see of her in her hospital bed. Tone and O'Sullivan are beautiful together as they convincingly play at being apart--it is impossible not to fall in love with Maureen O'Sullivan!

Franchot Tone fans (myself included) who have been looking for a picture that allows this fine actor a starring role--finally!--to match his talents will enjoy this sentimental soap opera.