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La Citadelle

Original title: The Citadel
  • 1938
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
2.5K
YOUR RATING
La Citadelle (1938)
Official Trailer
Play trailer4:35
1 Video
25 Photos
Drama

An enthusiastic young doctor happily embarks on his career, but it isn't long before he finds out what being a doctor really entails.An enthusiastic young doctor happily embarks on his career, but it isn't long before he finds out what being a doctor really entails.An enthusiastic young doctor happily embarks on his career, but it isn't long before he finds out what being a doctor really entails.

  • Director
    • King Vidor
  • Writers
    • Ian Dalrymple
    • Frank Wead
    • Elizabeth Hill
  • Stars
    • Robert Donat
    • Rosalind Russell
    • Ralph Richardson
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.0/10
    2.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • King Vidor
    • Writers
      • Ian Dalrymple
      • Frank Wead
      • Elizabeth Hill
    • Stars
      • Robert Donat
      • Rosalind Russell
      • Ralph Richardson
    • 44User reviews
    • 9Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 4 Oscars
      • 9 wins & 4 nominations total

    Videos1

    The Citadel
    Trailer 4:35
    The Citadel

    Photos24

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    Top cast31

    Edit
    Robert Donat
    Robert Donat
    • Andrew Manson
    Rosalind Russell
    Rosalind Russell
    • Christine
    Ralph Richardson
    Ralph Richardson
    • Denny
    Rex Harrison
    Rex Harrison
    • Dr. Lawford
    Emlyn Williams
    Emlyn Williams
    • Owen
    Penelope Dudley-Ward
    Penelope Dudley-Ward
    • Toppy LeRoy
    • (as Penelope Dudley Ward)
    Francis L. Sullivan
    Francis L. Sullivan
    • Ben Chenkin
    • (as Francis Sullivan)
    Mary Clare
    Mary Clare
    • Mrs. Orlando
    Cecil Parker
    Cecil Parker
    • Charles Every
    Nora Swinburne
    Nora Swinburne
    • Mrs. Thornton
    Edward Chapman
    Edward Chapman
    • Joe Morgan
    Athene Seyler
    Athene Seyler
    • Lady Raebank
    Felix Aylmer
    Felix Aylmer
    • Mr. Boon
    Joyce Bland
    • Nurse Sharp
    Percy Parsons
    Percy Parsons
    • Mr. Stillman
    Dilys Davies
    • Mrs. Page
    Basil Gill
    Basil Gill
    • Doctor Page
    Joss Ambler
    Joss Ambler
    • Dr. A.H. Llewellyn
    • Director
      • King Vidor
    • Writers
      • Ian Dalrymple
      • Frank Wead
      • Elizabeth Hill
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews44

    7.02.5K
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    Featured reviews

    10madshell

    A Moving Film of Medicine and Morals

    A morality tale of medicine, this film brilliantly illustrates the plight of a doctor who truly cares for healing the sick -- yet even finds his patients to be dishonest. Robert Donat is superb in his transformation from a good doctor to a money making doctor for the rich. Roselyn Russell compliments his performance with her own emotional struggle, as she watches her husband all but lose his heart. Brilliant direction from early veteran director King Vidor gives this film a worthy place in film history. This is a must see for any doctor -- IMHO.
    9kdmcc-1

    The Citadel has a fine story and a terrific performance by a great actor

    This is a wonderful film that deserves to be seen by a wider audience than it currently receives. The screenplay of "The Citadel" is excellent and deals with issues that have a continuing relevance today. Indeed, its theme--the importance of having a strong sense of vocation and integrity --especially among medical doctors, will probably always retain its original significance.

    Robert Donat plays a physician who starts out as an idealistic young man working in a poor Welsh coal mining district, but after a series of disappointments he leaves and becomes a cynical member of a London clinic for rich patients, practising the kind of assembly line medicine that is all too common today in many countries. It is likely, however, that the film had a definite influence in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada, which developed publicly-funded medical plans after World War Two.

    But even the best universal health care systems can still be prone to such problems as inequities in the availability or quality of treatment and incompetent or uncaring doctors, interested only in making money. Moreover, the issues of professional ethics, individual conscience and personal commitment are applicable to many other occupations, as we've recently seen in the cases of corrupt corporations, such as Enron, which have also abused people's trust.

    The other main virtue of this film lies in the acting of Robert Donat. Sir Laurence Olivier once stated that Robert Donat would have been a greater actor than Olivier himself was, had it not been for the chronic asthma that plagued Donat throughout his life and ultimately killed him. That terrible respiratory illness may have inspired him, in "The Citadel," to give one of the most sensitive and moving performances I have ever seen on film, during the scene in which Dr. Manson gets a baby, thought to have died, to breath again.

    Donat's complete mastery of what the legendary Konstantin Stanislavsky called "tempo-rhythmn" gives a palpable urgency to this scene that is unforgettable. Watch his delicate and expressive use of his hands while he works to save the infant he's holding. These are the hands of a great actor giving life to a scene, and, at the same time, the hands of a great doctor giving life to a child.

    This is acting of the highest order, and if you want to see what the real "Stanislavsky Method" (and not the inferior misinterpretation of it by Lee Strasberg) was all about, Donat's performance in this scene remains as magnificent a demonstration of its goal of emotional truth as I have ever witnessed in many years of watching theatre and film. The rest of his performance is equally brilliant. The changes in his face perfectly convey the degrees by which the former idealist becomes a jaded opportunist, and then. . .

    Well, I don't want to be a spoiler and give the whole story away! I highly recommend "The Citadel" to anyone who enjoys films that have real meaning, or who appreciates the true, and truthful, art of acting--acting that is so brilliant and free from any trace of mannerism and artifice that we forget we're watching acting at all. We're seeing life and art unfold together. Thanks to the talent of Robert Donat, form and content become one: his concern with integrity and the film's concern with it simply merge into an inseparable artistic unity. This is a cinematic experience that nobody should miss.
    jandesimpson

    One of the better British films of the 'thirties

    "The Citadel" is one of those circular morality fables - idealistic young man sets out full of good intentions to put the world to right, but, finding his dreams dashed by prejudice and ignorance, throws in his lot with the protection of an easy but dishonest life only to realise the error of his ways through personal tragedy with consequent redemption. A;though stylistically and culturally a world apart, it is thematically a precursor of Mizoguchi's "Sansho Dayu". Made in great Britain in 1938, its MGM backing certainly shows in higher production values than most home grown films of the period - and this in spite of much reliance on back projection of the sort that even the great Carol Reed could not always effectively disguise. One of Hollywood's top directors, King Vidor, invests it with visual quality and, in a part that could have been tailored for Greer Garson, Rosalind Russell makes a surprisingly convincing female lead, supporting the hero throughout his tribulations with every ounce of Garsonian understanding he needs. But it is Robert Donat as the idealistic doctor, who first tries his professional hand in the dark Welsh colliery valley, that is the film's greatest strength. Here was an actor who brought a sense of dignity and integrity to every role he undertook from the earliest Richard Hannay to the Chinese nobleman in "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" which he was brave enough to play when he was literally gasping for breath. His performance in "The Citadel" is not entirely free from cliché but I imagine this was something imposed by the conventions of the period. How else to explain that when he becomes mean and mercenary he suddenly sports a very short and unsympathetic moustache which, if memory serves me right, miraculously disappears for the final scene of redemption. For the rest there is a galaxy of British acting talent to be found among the supporting roles with a brief glimpse of the dignified Nora Swinburne and a few more of a youthful Francis L. Sullivan doing his obese bigot stuff with rather less brains than usual. And as if this was not all, there is "Sexy Rexy" Harrison gracing the Harley Street scene, Cecil Parker playing a particularly odious surgeon who would no doubt be struck off the Medical Register if he were around today and the great Ralph Richardson investing the role of Donat's best friend with just about the right amount of Shakespearean rhetoric that the part will support. All in all a veritable treat provided you suspend just a little bit of disbelief.
    9doc-55

    Thought-provoking yet thoroughly entertaining, not too dated

    A look at the medical profession today will convince anyone that this narrative of the conflict a sensitive young physician experiences: whether to serve the not-especially-appreciative poor or the hypocond- riac and over-appreciative wealthy, if he caters to their whims. (At the end one wonders how great a difference there is between these two constituencies.) How many medical school graduates today choose to into small-town or rural general practice, as opposed to pursuing lucrative specialist careers? Robert Donat's effective performance is, as usual, understated; while Rosalind Russell easily matches him in a portrayal that makes one regret that she later became typed in comic roles as a result of superb performances in that genre. A supporting cast that includes the youthful Rex Harrison, Emlyn Williams and Ralph Richardson, all early in their careers and all with perfectly formed characteriza- tions, gives the film depth that one might not have anticipated. This is one of those films that makes one regret the loss of the old studio system, which enabled MGM, with its guaranteed bookings, to make a prestige film on a serious social issue with relatively few melodramatic excesses; and to offset probable box office losses by the studio's many box office bonanza romantic, comic or musical star vehicles. And today??
    8blanche-2

    lovely film, and what a cast

    A.J. Cronin's book "The Citadel" was adapted for a 1938 film starring Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Richardson, Rex Harrison, and Emlyn Williams, directed by King Vidor.

    Donat plays Andrew, a young, idealistic new doctor who goes to work in a small Welsh mining town, where he marries a pretty schoolteacher, Christine (Rosalind Russell). Many of the miners have a persistent cough, and he becomes interested in finding the cause. But the miners have little understanding of the big picture and just want the "pink medicine" the old doctor gave them, which just helped their symptoms.

    Thwarted at every turn, Andrew and Christine move to London, where Andrew opens a practice. Then he has a change of fortune when he runs into an old friend (Rex Harrison) who gets him on the society doctor track, where he gets big money for treating hypochondriacal patients and by merely being present while a surgery is being performed, or taking a referral.

    A beautiful movie with the underrated Donat turning in a wonderful performance of quiet intensity. Russell's expressions say more than her words - you know exactly how she's feeling. Ralph Richardson -- was he ever bad? - plays Andrew's old friend Denny, who notices the change in Andrew's goals.

    A.J. Cronin was one of the authors whose novels were often adapted for film in the old days: "The Spanish Gardener," "The Green Years,", "Keys of the Kingdom," "Bright Victory," "Vigil in the Night," and others. Some of his stories involve medicine/science and sacrifice/dedication. Those books made for some inspiring films in the '30s and '40s.

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Vivien Leigh, Greer Garson, and Geraldine Fitzgerald screen-tested for the role of Christine.
    • Goofs
      When Andrew examines Christine's throat, he sits in front of a light that is supposedly reflected into Christine's mouth by his eyepiece. We see this from over Andrew's shoulder, and when the light is directed into her mouth, it is clearly coming from behind Andrew, because the back of his eyepiece is illuminated.
    • Quotes

      Christine Barlow Manson: Andrew, Do you remember once telling me that a all good research man needed was a notebook, a microscope and a room with a roof over it?

    • Crazy credits
      Prologue: "This motion picture is a story of individual characterizations and is in no way intended as a reflection on the great medical profession which has done so much towards beating back those forces of nature that retard the physical progress of the human race."
    • Alternate versions
      Also shown in computer colorized version.
    • Connections
      Featured in The Ultimate Film (2004)

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    FAQ18

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • February 8, 1939 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • La ciudadela
    • Filming locations
      • Abertillery, Blaenau Gwent, Wales, UK(Village scenes)
    • Production company
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 50 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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