The People vs. Dr. Kildare

Dr. Kildare faces a whopping $100,000 malpractice suit in "The People vs. Dr. Kildare," also starring Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, Alma Kruger, Benita Granville, Tom Conway, and Red Skelton. MGM used this series and the later Dr. Gillespie series as training ground for its young actors - often, seeing them today, they seem to have very important casts that have included people like Donna Reed, Van Johnson, Keye Luke, and Ava Gardner.

When a young ice skater (Granville) is paralyzed in one leg after an emergency roadside operation done by Kildare, he becomes the target of a malpractice suit. Today it would be for $100 million, but back in 1941, $100,000 was a chunk of change that put Kildare's career on the line.

This entry into the series isn't as good as some of the others. It was directed with a sledgehammer - the normally good Granville overacts like crazy, and Barrymore is off the charts with bad temper. Red Skelton is supposed to provide comic relief but doesn't really have the material to do it. And we again have to listen to Nurse Byrd lamenting the man who got away and the lack of fulfillment she has because she never married. Thanks for drumming that into my mother's head in film after film. Also, because of Court TV, the courtroom scenes aren't very credible.

Nevertheless, you can't help liking some of the characters and relationships, and especially Dr. Kildare and Mary. Ayres and Day are delightful in their roles.

It's almost unbelievable to see just how grumpy and bitter Dr. Gillespie really is around everyone--including the staff of Blair General Hospital--and LIONEL BARRYMORE overdoes the grumpiness to the nth degree with some pretty bitter, contemptuous statements about doctors and lawyers.

And yet, this entry in the Dr. Kildare series is graced by a couple of fine points--namely, LEW AYRES and LARAINE DAY, who do nicely in the leads and a supporting cast that includes no less than RED SKELTON, BONITA GRANVILLE, DIANA LEWIS, TOM CONWAY and ALMA KRUGER, all doing reasonably well with standard Kildare material.

Bonita is at her loveliest as the skater who needs an emergency operation after a car wreck--but then discovers that she can no longer move her leg after Dr. Kildare operates. The rest of the film is devoted to whether or not she'll win the malpractice case against him.

The courtroom scenes have no real bearing on reality, with Dr. Gillespie's impractical plea to the jury being just one of the things we're forced to swallow. The humor is pretty lame, with most of the burden falling on the upcoming Red Skelton as a dumb hospital worker under the thumb of chronic complainer Alma Kruger.

However, it moves at a brisk pace and is no worse than any other Kildare saga in the series MGM used to promote Ayres and Day, as well as their upcoming talent. But be aware, much of it is politically incorrect and very dated by today's standards.

The seventh in the Dr. Kildare series from MGM starring Lew Ayres as Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as his mentor Dr. Gillespie. This time around, Jimmy Kildare finds out the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. After performing an emergency roadside operation to save the life of a figure skater (Bonita Granville), he is then sued by that skater. Yes, the Kildare series takes on medical malpractice lawsuits in this one.

Ayres and Gillespie are both great. Laraine Day, Alma Kruger, Nell Craig, and Walter Kingsford are as enjoyable as usual. Nat Pendleton is replaced here by Red Skelton as the comic relief orderly. Pendleton is missed. Bonita Granville is fine as a somewhat unlikable character. The rest of the supporting cast includes reliable pros like Tom Conway, Paul Stanton, and Chick Chandler. Look for Dwight Frye as the jury foreman!

The courtroom backdrop is a nice change of pace but I can already see from skimming other reviews that the same crowd that dislikes this series for its dated medical knowledge (how dare they not be able to see into the future!) also dislike this film's handling of legal matters. I guess I'll never get it. I don't look at photos from the 1800s and wonder why those people aren't driving cars. Anyway, this is a good entry in the series, but not one of the best. There aren't many of those wonderful little character moments for Lionel Barrymore that are my favorite parts of the series. Fans of the series should still like it.

Dr. James Kildare (Lew Ayres) and nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) come upon a car crash. Ice skater Frances Marlowe (Bonita Granville) is dangerously hurt and Kildare does roadside surgery. With her leg paralyzed, she ends up taking Kildare to court. Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) is itching to testify.

That nurse is really dumb to suggest that Kildare drank half a bottle of whiskey. The comedic attempts are too broad considering the frustrating subject matter and it is rather frustrating. Court dramas often skew one way to build tension. Kildare's lawyer keeps holding back. Again, it's frustrating. I'm also less than compelled by Gillespie's testimony. It rambles on and on. The movie builds it up a lot and my expectations may be too high. All in all, this is more of a court drama than a medical drama.

The title speaks for itself, Lew Ayres finds himself on the wrong end of a malpractice suit which will happen inevitably to any doctor if he practices long enough in America, this wonderful litigious country of our's. His predicament makes this particular Dr. Kildare film quite relevant for modern times.

It becomes The People vs. Dr. Kildare when Lew Ayres while driving Alma Kruger's car with fiancé Laraine Day gets into an accident. He does some on the spot surgery to ice skater Bonita Granville which saves her, but she is paralyzed in one leg after the operation. So what else can she do but sue the doctor who saved her life and everyone else remotely connected with the incident.

Unfortunately in Alma Kruger's car was half used bottle of liquor which Ayres can't account for, but he knows that he and Day didn't drink that evening. That fact gets leaked to Granville's lawyer Paul Stanton and it's the foundation of his case.

Of course it's the wise counsel of Lionel Barrymore that saves the day and on cross examination by the hospital and Kildare's lawyer Tom Conway an open question allows Barrymore to address the jury in the same manner he did in his Oscar winning performance in A Free Soul. I need not say that Barrymore did not drop dead at the end of his oration.

Red Skelton made the second of two appearances in the Kildare series as medical orderly Vernon Briggs. Skelton was taking the place of ambulance driver Nat Pendleton and his humor is there for comic relief and somewhat shoehorned into the film. An offhanded remark by him though is what gives the plaintiff in the suit ammunition to first start Granville's lawsuit.

An equal amount of time is spent in the courtroom as well as the hospital in The People Vs. Dr. Kildare, one of the better of the Kildare features.