Il segreto del dr. Kildare

Dr. Kildare (Lew Ayres) assists wheelchair-bound dying Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) in a fight to cure pneumonia. Wall Street tycoon Paul Messenger wants his daughter Nancy checked as she presents personality issues. With Gillespie sidelined due to exhaustion, Kildare poses as a family friend to investigate Nancy.

I don't know anything about this series or these characters to my detriment. This is preceded by two movies in the series and two more stories before MGM. I missed the connection between student and mentor. I get the idea from the movie but not the feeling. Lionel is a lion. Lew Ayres pales in comparison. If it's done today, this would be TV show material. This is fine for pre-TV to have a movie series such as this.

Dr. Gillespie's health worsens and the work on a project with Dr. Kildare is taking its toll. In order to get him to take a rest, Dr. Kildare persuades the hospital to assign him to look after an heiress who believes she is dying.

Fourth of the ten films in the series and the third in which Lew Ayres plays Dr. Kildare. Quite entertaining but fans of the series will know what to expect and, as usual, Lionel Barrymore steals the show as Dr. Gillespie. Helen Gilbert plays the heiress.

In real life if Donald Trump had a daughter like Helen Gilbert with all kinds of ailments we would be catering to her I have no doubt the way Walter Kingsford as head of Blair General Hospital is catering to Gilbert's father Lionel Atwill. Of course Kingsford turns the problem over to Lionel Barrymore who in turn gets Lew Ayres to do the actual work.

Which consists of being introduced as an eligible young man by Atwill to his daughter and Ayres to start dating her up to observe her behavior from a medical perspective. You know that's going to cause a problem for Ayres because his relationship with nurse Laraine Day who was introduced to the Blair General Hospital staff and the Dr. Kildare series in the previous film.

Best thing about a somewhat silly episode is the performance of Grant Mitchell as a quack doctor who Gilbert gets involved with. The Dr. Feelgood of his time.

It's hard to imagine this series without Lionel Barrymore as the cantankerous old wheelchair-ridden Dr. Gillespie, who is perfect counterpoint to the good actor, but rather bland Lew Ayres, playing Dr. Kildare. Without Barrymore, or the likes of him, the series would surely have flopped. The three plots going at once is typical of the series, and handled well by the director Harold S. Bucquet. The film, however, is badly named, because I couldn't tell for sure what Kildare's secret was. The audience is in on several of his deceptions: his quitting Gillespie to force him to rest; his not telling Helen Gilbert he was a doctor; and finally his lying to her about the treatment he was going to give her. Still, the film is fun to watch, especially if you've seen others films in the series and get to know how the various hospital characters interact.

The third movie in the wonderful Dr. Kildare series from MGM finds Jimmy Kildare (Lew Ayres) trying to help a rich man's daughter who's having some kind of psychological problems that have led to a case of hysterical blindness. Meanwhile, Kildare must also deal with both his father (Samuel S. Hinds) and mentor, Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore), having illnesses. Gillespie's still fighting his cancer and refusing to rest. Kildare, Sr. is visiting a heart specialist without telling Jimmy.

Ayres and Barrymore are both great. Barrymore's Gillespie gives some tough love to an alcoholic with one of my favorite outbursts of his ("If you drink, it's your own fault and you can't blame your poor ancestors!"). The cast of regulars, including Laraine Day and Nat Pendleton, are terrific. None of them hit a bad note. Pretty Helen Gilbert is the girl with hysterical blindness. She does fine. Lionel Atwill is somewhat wasted as her father. I kept expecting to find out her condition was caused by some mad science experiment of his but, alas, no such luck. Sara Haden and Grant Mitchell also appear in small roles.

It's not the strongest entry in the series but it is enjoyable. One interesting tidbit is that Gillespie refers to hospital head Dr. Carew (Walter Kingsford) as the best doctor in the hospital. Carew is usually displayed in the series as more of a bureaucrat than a competent doctor, let alone 'the best.' It was a nice touch for them to add a layer to the character, even if it's little more than lip service.