Complete credited cast: | |||
Errol Flynn | ... | Dr. Newell Paige | |
Anita Louise | ... | Phyllis Dexter | |
Margaret Lindsay | ... | Frances Ogilvie | |
Cedric Hardwicke | ... | Dean Harcourt (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke) | |
Walter Abel | ... | John Stafford | |
Henry O'Neill | ... | Dr. Endicott | |
Spring Byington | ... | Mrs. Dexter | |
Erin O'Brien-Moore | ... | Pat Arlen | |
Henry Kolker | ... | Dr. Lane | |
Pierre Watkin | ... | Dr. Booth | |
Granville Bates | ... | Sheriff | |
Russell Simpson | ... | Sheep Man | |
Myrtle Stedman | ... | A Nurse | |
St. Luke's Episcopal Church Choristers | ... | (as St. Luke's Choristers) | |
Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
Eddy Chandler | ... | Policeman (scenes deleted) |
When his colleague Dr. Endicott is late for an operation, Dr. Newell Paige decides to proceed with Mrs. Endicott's scheduled surgery. The surgery had already been postponed from the previous day and Paige is convinced the surgery needs to go forward without delay. Part way through the operation however, Endicott arrives and takes over only to make a serious error. When a hospital inquiry finds Dr. Paige responsible for Mrs. Dexter's death, he is forced to resign. By chance he meets Mrs. Dexter daughter, Phyllis, and while there is a mutual attraction, she rejects him when she learns his true identity. With little else to do, Paige decides to join his one time hospital colleague in Montana, Dr. John Stafford, who is continuing his tests into spotted fever. Paige is impatient however and decides to test a possible cure on himself. Written by garykmcd
Taken in an historical context, the idea that Dr. Paige would take the blame for Dr. Endicott's failure was not "bizarre" at all, as other critiques assert. Self-sacrifice and the idea that suffering makes for growth of an individual were themes of the depression era. As to the viewpoint that Dean Harcourt is talking in some weird psycho-babble, at the time religious piety was declining and radio evangelism was emerging – talking about a higher power was more appealing than talking about God.
I think Green Light has to be taken as entertainment, with good performances particularly by Errol Flynn, Margaret Lindsay, Walter Abel and Sir Cedric Hardwicke, and in the context of the times.