Emergency Doctor

This eight-minute RKO Pathe short from the '50s is a demonstration of what the emergency ambulance doctors go through on a daily basis, as soon as a call comes in that requires an immediate response.

The first example shown involves an apartment fire with firemen on the scene breaking windows to enter. Some of them require medical assistance at the scene and are soon put into ambulances and on their way to the hospital.

A little girl who has inhaled too much smoke is another victim, but she does make a full recovery in the hospital.

The final scene involves a woman in pain at a convenience store, whom it turns out is about to deliver a baby. She and the little one are bundled off to the hospital by the emergency ambulance crew.

All is told in a swift eight minutes before the short subject ends.

Emergency Doctor (1956)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

RKO-Pathe short showing the importance of emergency doctors, the men who rush out to fires, wrecks and things like that to save lives. This is certainly a well-meaning film and there's no question that we need shorts to pay respect to these people but at the same time this film is a tad bit too sweet and in the end we really don't learn anything. The movie has a nice story to it but it's one we've seen in countless other shorts and I can't help but wish we go to see how they work together. The film tells us something, shows it to us but never expands and gives us all the details. A decent way to kill nine-minutes but nothing overly special.