Dr. Kildare Goes Home

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.

Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) is being his crotchety helpful self. Dr. James Kildare (Lew Ayres) finishes his internship and becomes a resident under Gillespie. He visits home and finds his father struggling. He tries to help the practice but the patients are leery of his young age. He decides to stay for his underserved community.

It's the sixth Dr. Kildare movie and the fifth with Lew Ayres. It's a good episode and that's what these movies are becoming. In another era, they would be episodes in a TV show. The big takeaway for this one is that he is proposing what is essentially socialized medicine. It just goes to show the political movement over the years. Otherwise, this is a pretty compelling chapter in this continuing story.

I too enjoyed this entry into the world of neophyte doctor, Dr. Kildare.

It's nice to see his parents once again, as in several of the earlier films, playing such important roles in his life. Both his parents are fine, but his mother is simply adorable.

I was also surprised at Dr. Marsh's depiction. A "colored" man (the terminology of the time) who happens to be an amazing doctor and one who speaks standard English. I would imagine this scene was often cut in the South since it doesn't directly impact the main plot, but it was fascinating to see.

A nice addition to the Dr. Kildare series.

... 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.