Errol Flynn in “dreamy” mode, making a picture for the ladies – he plays a handsome doctor who takes the blame for the ineptitude of another doctor. Errol drives around in a sports car, smoking cigarettes and has women fall in love with him left right and centre – his nurse with unrequited love, his patient who subsequently dies, said patient’s daughter. Even then men seem to have crushes on him – the devoted research doctor who wants Errol to come with him to the mountains and find a cure for spotted fever, the dean who offers advice to all and sundry, the doctor whose negligence causes Errol’s disgrace. At the end of the film most of them are gathered round Errol’s bedside through ten minutes or so of “almost deathbed acting” as Errol fights spotted fever in order to test a serum.
This is based on a novel by Lloyd C Douglas, who wrote Magnificent Obsession and The Robe, so there’s a lot of non-ironic talk about God and love, plus some comic stuff with a dog called Sylvia (to whom Errol asks “what’s it all about?”). Actually, come to think of it, it’s more accurate to say there’s a comic moment – the rest of the film is deadly earnest, with violins constantly playing. Errol’s performance is fine – there’s not really much for him to do, his character doesn’t really go on any sort of journey: he’s a nice guy to start off with, he only gets in trouble because he does something noble; he hits the bottle one time and doesn’t believe in religion, but that’s about it. I remember Paramount tried out Alan Ladd as a doctor in a woman's picture soon after he discovered stardom too.
Cedric Hardwick plays a preacher who delivers a series of sermons about the importance of suffering and who the characters visit every now and then for pep talks. Margaret Lindsay is the pretty nurse who just doesn’t have a chance next to prettier (and richer) Anita Louise. Laugh if you will (and you should) but this sort of stuff was popular at the time. It’s a pretty awful sort of film, unvinvolving with dull characters – but its sheer oddness makes it watchable. There’s a very good analysis of the film at http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/Rick/gl.htm.
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