The Doctor and the Girl (1949)

Dr. Michael Corday, a recent graduate of the Harvard Medical School, is the son of Dr. John Corday, an eminent New York City surgeon who has a tendency to continue to direct the lives of ... See full summary »

Director:

Curtis Bernhardt

Writers:

Maxence van der Meersch (story), Theodore Reeves (screenplay)

Stars:

Glenn Ford, Charles Coburn, Gloria DeHaven

Cast

Cast overview:
Glenn Ford	...	Dr. Michael Corday
Charles Coburn	...	Dr. John Corday
Gloria DeHaven	...	Fabienne Corday
Janet Leigh	...	Evelyn 'Taffy' Heldon
Bruce Bennett	...	Dr. Alfred Norton
Warner Anderson	...	Dr. George Esmond
Basil Ruysdael	...	Dr. Francis I. Garard
Nancy Davis	...	Mariette Esmond
Arthur Franz	...	Dr. Harvey L. Kenmore
Lisa Golm	...	Hetty
Joanne De Bergh	...	Child's mother

Storyline

Dr. Michael Corday, a recent graduate of the Harvard Medical School, is the son of Dr. John Corday, an eminent New York City surgeon who has a tendency to continue to direct the lives of his grown children. The daughter, Fabienne, runs away from home and Michael, after first following his father's advice of being callous to the point of cruelty toward patients, changes when he falls in love with a patient, marries her and sets up his practice on the lower East Side in New York. The death of a family member brings most of the family together. A couple of stronger plot incidents than usual for a 1940s film---unwed-pregnancy and botched abortion among them.

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Plot Keywords:

patient | harvard medical school | love | surgeon | 1940s | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 September 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bodies and Souls

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[Michael grabs Taffy, kisses her passionately and then they embrace]
Evelyn 'Taffy' Heldon: Remember, it's only platonic... I looked it up.

User Reviews

Good film, with Glenn Ford as a young doctor

Glenn Ford is a young doctor from a well-connected family in "The Doctor and the Girl," a 1949 film also starring Janet Leigh, Charles Coburn, Gloria de Haven, Bruce Bennett, and Nancy Davis, our former first lady.

Ford plays Dr. Michael Corday, an up and coming doctor who comes to do a rotation in a hospital and brings a lot of his well-known doctor/father's attitudes with him. The senior Dr. Corday (Coburn) has fixed attitudes about family and medicine and runs his home with an iron fist. The first night that Michael returns home from his medical training, his sister Fabienne (de Haven) announces that she's moving to Greenwich Village. In those days it was absolutely unheard of for an unmarried woman to move out of the parental home, so her father's not happy.

Michael isn't liked at the hospital. He's snobby, brusque, and too clinical, interested in his work but not people. Then he runs into a woman he processed in the outpatient ward, Evelyn (Leigh), who is waiting for lung surgery, and he realizes how cold he was to her. He works to make it up to her, and they wind up falling in love, and over his father's strenuous objections, he marries her and gives up the important residency he was promised. He and Evelyn move to her Third Avenue apartment, and Michael sets up practice. Meanwhile, the only child that hasn't disappointed the senior Corday is Mariette (Davis), who is marrying a doctor (when her dad sets the date) and is living at home. Corday Sr. soon learns the effect of his rigidity.

I really liked this film. It was an absorbing family drama, maybe on the soapy side, but there's nothing wrong with that when the characters are well depicted. Glenn Ford is very sincere and likable in his role and gets to show a little more dramatic range than usual; the pretty Leigh is lovely as Evelyn, frail but with an inner toughness. The rest of the cast is solid. Bruce Bennett plays the ENT doctor Michael has to deal with on his rotation. Bennett was in countless films, an Olympic champion in 1928, and died 5 years ago at the age of 100.

Very good movie, well worth seeing.