The Flame Within (1935)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Edmund Goulding

Writer:

Edmund Goulding (writer)

Release Date:

17 May 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Psychiatrist finds herself falling for her patient.

Plot Keywords:

Psychiatrist | Costume Ball | Doctor | Beautiful Woman | Hospital

Cast

Ann Harding	...	Doctor Mary White
Herbert Marshall	...	Doctor Gordon Phillips
Maureen O'Sullivan	...	Linda Belton
Louis Hayward	...	Jack Kerry
Henry Stephenson	...	Doctor Jock Frazier
Margaret Seddon	...	Mrs. Ida Grenfell
George Hassell	...	Mr. Rigby
Eily Malyon	...	Murdock, Lillian's Housekeeper
Isabelle Keith	...	Nurse Carter (as Claudelle Kaye)

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Movie Connections:

Featured in Complicated Women (2003) (TV)

1930's culture does not mute the universal theme of dying to romantic pulls when helping a client.

A female psychiatrist in the 1930's eschews marriage for the indefinite present to the male doctor that she is in love with, a man of great character who waits only for her and who courts her constantly. She fears that marriage will mean no career (1930's women's issue)and she is excited about the newness of psychiatry and her potential. He refers to her the case of a suicidal social lite who is in love with an alcoholic. She succeeds with them both, only for an imperceptible attachment to the alcoholic to emerge full blown, to her embarrassment. The young alcoholic openly professes his love for the one who healed him, and the suicidal social lite, now wife to the alcoholic, expresses her venom. In a classic scene of timeless relevance, the psychiatrist does not reciprocate her obvious feelings, but dies to them, pressing the now sober young man not to relapse, and pressing him to be the strong one for his new bride as she, the doctor, has been the strong one for him as her patient. She tells him that "doing what is right" has its own "greater ecstasy." The young couple reunite happily, and the psychiatrist finds that the steady, true love of her doctor friend holds up through the obviously painful ordeal. 1930's culture and women's issues should not blur the impact and powerful relevance of the theme of dying to self interest to find fulfillment on a higher level.