Calling Dr. Kildare (1939)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Harold S. Bucquet

Writers:

Max Brand (story)
Harry Ruskin (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

28 April 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Dr. Gillespie tries to teach Jimmy Kildare a lesson by tossing him into a street clinic. Only Kildare...

Plot Keywords:

Hide Out | Intern | False Accusation | New York City | Medical

Cast

Lew Ayres	...	Dr, James 'Jimmy' Kildare
Lionel Barrymore	...	Dr. Leonard Gillespie
Laraine Day	...	Nurse Mary Lamont
Nat Pendleton	...	Joe Wayman
Lana Turner	...	Rosalie Lewett
Samuel S. Hinds	...	Dr. Stephen Kildare
Lynne Carver	...	Alice Raymond
Emma Dunn	...	Mrs. Martha Kildare
Walter Kingsford	...	Dr. Walter Carew
Alma Kruger	...	Head Nurse Molly Byrd
Harlan Briggs	...	James Galt, Dartford Banker
Henry Hunter	...	Harry Galt
Marie Blake	...	Sally the Switchboard Operator
Phillip Terry	...	Intern Bates
Roger Converse	...	Intern Joiner

Also Known As:

Dr. Kildare's Mistake (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #5215)

Company:

Loew's

Movie Connections:

Followed by Dark Delusion (1947)

You idiot! You congenital idiot! I got you out of town! Why didn't you stay there!

**SPOILERS** Dr. Jimmy Kildare, Lew Ayres, plays detective here in tracking down the killer of bookie Footsy Garson whom his patient Nick Lewett,George Offerman Jr, is wanted by the police for murdering.

Dr. Kildare got himself into this mess by first being a bit too big for his bridges in thinking that he can diagnose any illness without looking into it's, the illness', secondary causes like the psychological instead of psychical aspects of it. Thrown out of Dr. Lenny Gillespie's, Lionel Barrymore, office as his assistant Dr. Kildare is assigned to a dispensary, or clinic, where the Willy as a fox Dr. Gillespie assigns Nurse Mary Lamont, Laraine Day, who doubles as a spy for the old geezer to keep track of him.

Being the person that he is, totally dedicated to preserving human life,Dr. Kildare gets himself into a jam when he's called by Red, Johnny Welsh, to help his friend Nick Lewitt who's suffering from a stab wound. It turns out that Nick was in fact shot not stabbed and Dr. Kildare after meeting Nick's knock out of a sister a redheaded not the usual blond Lana Turner, playing Rosalie Lewett, he completely forgot himself and the fact that her brother Nick is a fugitive from justice.

Love makes people do crazy things and Dr. Jimmy Kildare is no exception to the rule in not only putting his medical career in jeopardy but himself in the can, jail, for helping an escaped murderer. Being conned by Rosilie that she's in love with him Dr. Kildare does everything he could, even a make-shift blood transfusion, to save her brother Nick's life. There's nothing at all wrong in saving Nick's life, so he can later be fried for murder, but the fact that Dr. Kildare didn't report Nick to the police was enough, when it was found out by his boss at the hospital Dr. Walter Carew(Walter Kngsford), to get him canned from his job.

I turns out later that Dr. Lenny Gillespie orchestrated Jimmy Kildare trip back home to Dartford Connecticut to keep him from getting arrested by the police but the love-sick fool just couldn't stay there! Jimmy Kildare screwed up all of Dr. Gillespie's plans as well as himself by going back to where Nick was, back in the Big Apple,in order to treat him.

***SPOILERS***Everything turns out to be all right with Jimmy Kildare finding out who really knocked of Footsy Garson and of course, like Jimmy suspected all along, it wasn't Nick Lewitt. With his career as a doctor now back on track at Blair General Hospital Dr. Kildare is now again Dr. Gillespie's assistant and most of all has found his one and only true love the homely and plain Jane, compared to the drop dead gorgeous Rosalie Lewett, Nurse Mary Lamont.

***SPOILER ALERT***As for Rosalie she also had a big surprise coming her way in that her boyfriend, who's portrait was prominent all over her apartment, set Nick up and conned her, like she did Jimmy Kildare, into thinking that Nick may well had been Footsy's killer. Just like Jimmy Kildare Rosalie let her emotions take the place of her brain in seeing the obvious and in the end paid for it.