Four Girls in White

Watching Four Girls In White and knowing what I know about how these decisions were made back in the day, I got the feeling that this was a film probably made because Louis B. Mayer did not want to keep the Dr. Kildare sets idle too long. So this predictable, but still decent medical melodrama was made concerning for nurses doing their training at Rutland Hospital.

Our four protagonists are sisters Florence Rice and Ann Rutherford, young mother Mary Howard, and for comic relief Una Merkel. The four start their training at the same time and become roommates. The four are very different personalities ranging from the serious minded Mary Howard to Florence Rice whose real aim is to land a rich doctor.

The doctors there are also pretty different and they're giving Rice the once over. Alan Marshal who is a dedicated ER man likes what he sees, but is repelled by her attitude. Never mind though, Rice sets her cap for rich doctor Kent Taylor who would rather be mixing business with pleasure. His idea is to take the family yacht to the South Seas and combine research into tropical diseases with a little cruise.

Rounding out the cast are supervisors Sara Haden and Jessie Ralph and hospital orderly Buddy Ebsen also more comic relief.

There are laughs and heartaches and tragedy in this film about the nurses from Rutland. Though this film may very well have been an afterthought from the studio bosses and it doesn't contain any A list cast members, it's still a decent though predictable medical story.

Somewhat over-wrought melodrama about the trials and tribulations of working in a big-city hospital in the late 1930's. There is a great deal of emphasis on the selflessness of these caregivers, including a doctor who is tempted by the big money of private private practice but stays true to his mission. The hospital is amazingly orderly, quiet, and clean. Would have been good for recruitment.

The title refers to Norma (Florence Rice), her sister Pat (Ann Rutherford), the super dedicated Mary (Mary Howard), and the irreverent Gertie (Una Merkel). Merkel and Buddy Ebson provide much needed comic relief. Rutherford is quite good as the wholesome and perky little sister but Merkel is the reason to see this film. Her talent for comedy is amazing and after seeing her in "Four Girls in White" you will be on the lookout for more of her films.

The climatic train wreck-dam bursting sequence provides a glimpse into the staging of a low budget disaster back in the old days. The camera stays tight on the action, making very little seem like a really big deal.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Florence Rice, Ann Rutherford, Alan Marshal, and Kent Taylor star in "Four Girls in White," an MGM B movie from 1939.

MGM's B movies were always more like A-, as they took great care with these films, used to groom future stars.

This movie follows nursing students through their years of training, particularly Norma and Patricia Page (Rice and Rutherford). Other students include Una Merkel and Mary Howard. Howard's character has a child she had to leave behind in order to become a nurse and make a better life for both of them.

Norma has her eyes on a doctor (Marshal) who, if he would go into private practice, could make a whopping $50,000 a year, which today would be over $800,000.

After they break up, she sets her cap (as my mother would say) for the grandson of the hospital's founder (Kent Taylor). When he invites her and her sister to go cruising in his yacht on their vacation, Norma is determined to go at any price.

Mildly entertaining though a little confusing for newer fans, as Alan Marshal and Kent Taylor were both in the Clark Gable mold and kind of looked alike.

The women have the stronger roles, and they're all good, including Jessie Ralph and Sara Haden. Buddy Ebsen is funny in the comedy relief part.

Florence Rice was a young beauty, but MGM at some point must have decided she didn't have much spark and didn't give her the opportunities. She did some radio and TV before entering into a happy marriage and retiring.

Dr. Kildare fans will recognize the sets.

In that golden year of 1939, the same year that she played Careen, Scarlett O'Hara's youngest sister in GWTW Ann Rutherford also appeared in this earnest programmer. She's one of the title girls although not the most heavily featured, that would be the forgotten Florence Rice, but she's pert and strictly secondary which would explain how she could appear in EIGHT! films that year.

As for the rest of the film it's second feature, bottom of the bill stuff all the way. The lives and challenges of young nurses has been examined many times and nothing new is added here. Everyone performs professionally but without distinction, the unique Una Merkel livens things up whenever she pops in but she is also mostly on the sidelines. Everybody gets to prove their mettle by the end no matter how far they've strayed during the overheated melodramatics.

This is a typical medical melodrama -- minus Dr. Kildaire. But Simon does an unusually good job keeping it moving. And the cast is superb. (It even includes Tom Neal -- as a doctor, no less.) Florence Rice is the star. She's made up more glamorously than usual. She was an excellent actress who never really made it. Here she's very good as a girl who becomes a nurse in order to marry rich. She betrays a few people along the way, inadvertently, but redeems herself.

Also good is Ann Rutherford as her sister. She's in the same nursing class. Mary Howard is touching as another of their classmates.

The men take the back seat. Alan Marshall is good as the heartthrob on the staff. So is Kent Taylor as a playboy patient Rice sets her sights on.

For a period, it becomes a disaster movie. As such, it's very effective -- though it's best in its romantic parts.