Let Them Live
Cast & Crew
Harold Young
John Howard
Nan Grey
Edward Ellis
Judith Barrett
Robert Wilcox
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
On the train to Mid-City intern Dr. Paul Martin treats fellow passenger Mr. Lyons. Although Lyons is dying, he refuses to go to the hospital, so upon their arrival in the city, Paul treats him in his hotel room. Lyons admits he is actually Anthony William Lederer, a former leader of the town, who has returned to expose the corruptions of the current leader, Pete Lindsey. During their discussion, Paul reveals that he has no charitable tendencies and intends to be a physician to the rich. Before he dies, Lyons makes out a will in the presence of private secretary Judith Marshall, leaving Paul $8,000. After Lyons' death, Paul begins his work as an intern at General Hospital, where he is given ambulance duty. He loses his $8,000 to the Surrogate's Office, which oversees all wills, and is under the thumb of Lindsey. Judith tells Paul that her father died fighting Lindsey, and that Lindsey is after him to discover the identity of Lyons. While at the hospital, Paul meets Rita Johnson, Lindsey's niece, and they date. One night Paul saves the life of a young boy named Mike, whose father turned the gas on in his tenement apartment to keep his family from suffering a prolonged death from tuberculosis. Paul is outraged at the condition of the tenement, and angrily speaks out against the city government to reporters, who publish his words the next day. Rita takes him to meet Lindsey at his farm, where he provides a home for many underprivileged orphans. Lindsey wins Paul over with smooth talk, and Judith is later disappointed to discover that Paul's concern for the poor was only a temporary state of mind. Paul quarantines another tenement he believes is ridden with typhoid, after which his co-worker, Dr. Donald Clipton, gives him a typhoid shot. The shot makes him extremely ill, but he keeps his nightclub date with Rita. There, Lindsey informs him that he and the health department physician, Lissing, have lifted the quarantine on the building so the citizens will not be alarmed. Paul is again outraged and, while leaving the nightclub, nearly collapses in the lobby, where Judith helps him into her office for a rest. When he revives, a call to the hospital reveals that although his diagnosis of typhoid was incorrect, the tenement is infested with poliomyelitis, which is even more contagious and devastating. He and Judith decide to call Lindsey's bluff by confronting every corrupt city official with Lyons' damning confession and demanding they provide new buildings for the poor and proper equipment for the hospital. Lindsey has Paul arrested, but when Mike falls seriously ill, Lindsey has Paul released and sent to his home. In the meantime, a poliomyelitis epidemic sweeps the city, and the hospital is overcrowded and understaffed. At the farm, Paul tells Lindsey that he intends to let Mike die, as Lindsey has done with so many other poor children. Lindsey is horrified at Paul's callous attitude and, out of love for Mike, sincerely agrees to rebuild the tenements and upgrade the hospitals and care for the poor. The respirator Paul ordered arrives, showing that he never had any intention of allowing Mike to die, and he sets to work on the suffering child with the help of Donald, Rita and Judith. Mike revives by the next morning, and Lindsey has undergone a change of heart. To Rita's disappointment, Paul proposes to Judith and she accepts.
Director
Harold Young
Cast
John Howard
Nan Grey
Edward Ellis
Judith Barrett
Robert Wilcox
Bennie Bartlett
Henry Kolker
Robert Warwick
William Davidson
Ralph Remley
William B. Davidson
Michael Loring
Walter Walker
Thomas Jackson
Russell Hicks
Edwin Stanley
Frank Coghlan Jr.
William Gould
Harry C. Bradley
William Ruhl
Edward Le Saint
Lee Phelps
James Farley
Delmar Watson
Alphonse Martell
Larry Steers
Jack Mack
Zeni Vatori
Tony Merlo
Martin Turner
Anne Schaefer
Irene Coleman
Louise Glover
Margaret Davis
Polly Vann
Doris Rankin
Mabel Colcord
Frank H. Hammond
Johnnie Morris
Margaret Mann
Crew
Jesse T. Bastian
Bernard B. Brown
Charles Carroll
Camille Collins
John Ewing
Lou Forbes
Dick Fryer
John P. Fulton
Donald Gallaher
Edmund Grainger
Lionel Houser
Bruce Manning
Emily Moore
Jack Otterson
Jack Pierce
John Rawlins
William Reiter
James Van Trees
Gil Warrenton
Richard Wormser
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Richard Wormser's unpublished story was called "The Stones Cry Out." The working titles of the film were The Stones Cry Out and Doctor's Discovery. According to a February 1937 Hollywood Reporter news item, cameraman Dick Fryer substituted for James Van Trees when Trees became ill with influenza. Information in the Universal files at the USC Cinema-Television Library credits William Hall with the role of "Clipton," however, onscreen credits, as reflected above, conflict with this credit.
