Internes Can't Take Money (1937)

Director:

Alfred Santell

Writers:

Rian James (screenplay) and
Theodore Reeves (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

16 April 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

He risked his life to save a rat... And what did he get for it?

Plot:

In his first film, young Dr. Kildare helps a female ex-con find her child.

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Widow | Landlady | Gambler | Reference To Semmelweiss

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Janet Haley
Joel McCrea	...	James Kildare
Lloyd Nolan	...	Hanlon
Stanley Ridges	...	Innes
Lee Bowman	...	Interne Weeks
Barry Macollum	...	Stooly Martin
Irving Bacon	...	Jeff
Steve Pendleton	...	Interne Jones (as Gaylord Pendleton)
Pierre Watkin	...	Dr. Fearson
Charles Lane	...	Grote
James Bush	...	Haines
Nick Lukats	...	Interne
Anthony Nace	...	Dr. Riley
Fay Holden	...	Mother Teresa
Frank Bruno	...	Eddie
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Agostino Borgato	...	Popcorn Vendor (uncredited)
Helen Brown	...	Nurse (uncredited)
May Carlson	...	Ora (uncredited)
Pat Church	...	Chloe (uncredited)
Harvey Clark	...	Cashier (uncredited)
Ellen Drew	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Yvonne Dunkerley	...	Girl (uncredited)
Eddie Dunn	...	Ambulance Driver (uncredited)
Sammy Finn	...	Hood (uncredited)
Lillian Harmer	...	Mrs. Mooney - Landlady (uncredited)
Grace Hayle	...	Patient (uncredited)
Elmer Jerome	...	Wipey (uncredited)
Priscilla Lawson	...	Nurse (uncredited)
George Lynn	...	Joe (uncredited)
Herman Marks	...	Hood (uncredited)
John 'Skins' Miller	...	Weasel (uncredited)
Charles R. Moore	...	Elevator Operator (uncredited)
Frances Morris	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Jack Mulhall	...	First Mug (uncredited)
Jean Peterson	...	Frances (uncredited)
Lee Phelps	...	Bus Announcer (uncredited)
Rose Plumer	...	Patient (uncredited)
Jack Raymond	...	Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Alexander Schoenberg	...	Violinist (uncredited)
Charles Sherlock	...	Man in bookie's office (uncredited)
Gertrude Simpson	...	Stout Woman (uncredited)
Donna Staley	...	Girl (uncredited)
Charles Sullivan	...	Hood (uncredited)
Emma Tansey	...	Patient (uncredited)
Harry Tyler	...	Bookie (uncredited)
Lillian West	...	Admittance Clerk (uncredited)
Gloria Williams	...	Nurse (uncredited)

Directed by
Alfred Santell

Writing credits
Rian James		(screenplay) and
Theodore Reeves		(screenplay)
Max Brand		(story)

Produced by
Benjamin Glazer	....	producer

Original Music by
Gregory Stone
Friedrich Hollaender		(uncredited)
Bernhard Kaun		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Theodor Sparkuhl

Film Editing by
Doane Harrison

Art Direction by
Roland Anderson
Hans Dreier

Costume Design by
Travis Banton

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Roland Asher	....	assistant director

Art Department
A.E. Freudeman	....	interior decorator
Roland Anderson	....	associate production designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Harold Lewis	....	sound recordist
Louis Mesenkop	....	sound recordist

Music Department
Boris Morros	....	musical director
Charles Kisco	....	music advisor (uncredited)
Victor Young	....	conductor (uncredited)

Other crew
Adolph Zukor	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1937) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount (1938) (Austria) (theatrical)
• MCA/Universal Pictures (1958) (USA) (TV)
• MCA/Universal Pictures (1995) (USA) (VHS) (9For MCA Home Video)
• Universal Studios Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (The Barbara Stanwyck Collection)

Other Companies

• Deluxe Digital Studios  DVD transfer

Also Known As:

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #3032)

Filming Locations:

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Dan Innes:Who do you run around with now?
Janet Haley:No one.
Dan Innes:How do you get by?
Janet Haley:I work.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Jackie Gleason Show: The Honeymooners: Teamwork Beat the Clock" (1954)

B plot + A production = Dr. Kildare with atmosphere

An exceptionally flavorful rendering of the Depression atmosphere: a world of the poor laboring in sweatshop jobs, petty hoods hanging out in smoky bars, backroom bookie joints, pushcart vendors and bus terminals and orphanages. While the plot is no more ambitious than the typical B movie of the time, the high production values, name cast, and imaginative direction from Alfred Santell all boost the quality.

At the center of the plot, Barbara Stanwyck spends much of the film in desperation mode, exhausted from searching for her lost child, beaten down by two years in jail, forced to hire stool pigeons, forced to stay alert.

Joel McCrea makes the ideal American hero for the 30's: not only a doctor, but tall, blond, honest, sincere, manly, and progressive. At one point, he has to perform an operation on a bar room table, improvising with violin strings, an ice pick, and a bottle of rum! But this is not MGM's Dr. Kildare. He has no warm relationship with a kindly old mentor; instead, the chief doctor is an authority figure upholding the rules, dismissing Lee Bowman for unauthorized experimentation. The script also pumps up sympathy for interns as underpaid workers who get only $10 a month.

As a gangster, the always fascinating Stanley Ridges conveys the calm of a man secure in his power, whose eye movements size up his adversaries and whose silences reveal more menace than mere words. Watch the sexual innuendo he finds in his "I didn't always like popcorn" speech.

Santell uses extreme close-ups and moves the camera often, aided by gleaming lighting from Theodore Sparkuhl, plus some knock-out sets, including a sparkling white Art Deco clinic and an elaborately detailed New York Irish bar. Watch how economically Santell works to show the awakening of mutual attraction between Stanwyck and McCrea in their first scene together. Also lifting the picture out of its formula origins is the headlong pace Santell maintains to the climax, an urgency lost in the blander MGM series.