By Violet LeVoit
Dr. Kildare's Crisis
Brief Synopsis
A young doctor's marriage could be called off when the bride's brother is diagnosed with epilepsy.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Harold S. Bucquet
Director
Lew Ayres
Dr. James Kildare
Lionel Barrymore
Dr. Leonard Gillespie
Laraine Day
Mary Lamont
Robert Young
Douglas Lamont
Nat Pendleton
[Joe] Wayman
Film Details
Also Known As
Should Dr. Kildare Tell?
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Nov
29,
1940
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on characters created by Max Brand.
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels
Synopsis
As young doctor James Kildare and his finaceé, nurse Mary Lamont, make plans for their wedding day, Mary's brother Douglas arrives for a visit. Douglas meets with Dr. Kildare and asks him to arrange a meeting with wealthy Mr. Chanler, whose daughter Dr. Kildare saved some time ago, in order to solicit funding for subsidized trade schools. Soon after, the happy couple's optimism evaporates into despair when Douglas begins to hear nonexistent sounds and experience extreme mood swings, symptoms that lead Dr. Kildare to suspect that Douglas may have epilepsy, a hereditary condition that threatens his marriage to Mary. Dr. Kildare succeeds in getting Douglas an appointment with Chanler, but while Douglas meets with the philanthropist, Mary tells Dr. Kildare that her brother was kept awake all night by the sounds of a screaming woman, which confirms his suspicions about Douglas' epileptic symptoms and promts him to call Chanler and have him send Douglas to his office right away. The results of an experiment, in which Dr. Kildare administers coffee, whiskey, meat and salt to Douglas and lies to him in order to shock his nervous system, suggest that Dr. Kildare's assumption is correct. Dr. Kildare sadly admits that Douglas' prognosis is at best a lifetime of mediocrity and a complete mental breakdown at worst. As a result, Mary and Douglas plan to run away, but their flight is interrupted by the intervention of Dr. Gillespie, whose shrewd questioning of Douglas elicits the fact that he has suffered a recent head injury that might be responsible for the symptoms. When a further examination reveals a head trauma that can be remedied by a simple operation, the future again looks bright for Mary and her young doctor.
Director
Harold S. Bucquet
Director
Cast
Lew Ayres
Dr. James Kildare
Lionel Barrymore
Dr. Leonard Gillespie
Laraine Day
Mary Lamont
Robert Young
Douglas Lamont
Nat Pendleton
[Joe] Wayman
Walter Kingsford
Dr. Walter Carew
Alma Kruger
Molly Byrd
Bobs Watson
Tommy
Nell Craig
Nurse Parker
George Reed
Conover
Frank Orth
Mike
Marie Blake
Sally
Horace Macmahon
Foghorn [Murphy]
Emma Dunn
Mrs. Martha Kildare
Ann Morriss
Betty
Frank Sully
John Root
Lillian Rich
Nurse
Gladys Blake
Maisie
Pierre Watkin
Chanler
David Newell
Chanler's secretary
Charlie Arnt
Stubbins
Catherine Lewis
Flo
Mimi Doyle
Edith
Syd Saylor
Elevator operator
Milton Kibbee
Patient
Fred Santley
Head salesman
Byron Foulger
Orderly
Gus Schilling
Orderly
Tom Collins
Doctor
Bryant Washburn Jr.
Doctor
William Haade
Guirk
Eddie Acuff
Genet
Ernie Alexander
Assistant salesman
Crew
Max Brand
Story
Daniel B. Cathcart
Art Director Associate
Paul Dresser
Composer
Cedric Gibbons
Art Director
Willis Goldbeck
Story
Willis Goldbeck
Screenwriter
Gene Ruggiero
Film Editor
Harry Ruskin
Screenwriter
John Seitz
Photography
Douglas Shearer
Recording Director
Al Shenberg
Assistant Director
David Snell
Music Score
Edwin B. Willis
Set Decoration
Photo Collections
1 Photo
Dr. Kildare's Crisis - Movie Poster
Here is the American one-sheet movie poster for Dr. Kildare's Crisis (1940), starring Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore. One-sheets measured 27x41 inches, and were the poster style most commonly used in theaters.
Film Details
Also Known As
Should Dr. Kildare Tell?
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Nov
29,
1940
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Loew's Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on characters created by Max Brand.
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 15m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
8 reels
Articles
Dr. Kildare's Crisis -
In this, the sixth Dr. Kildare movie set in the mythical Blair Hospital, all is going well in our good doctor's love life. He and fiancee Nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) are happily preparing for their nuptials, but a visit from Mary's ailing brother Douglas (Robert Young) casts a pall on the proceedings. Do his mood swings and auditory hallucinations hint at epilepsy? And does that forebode hereditary problems for the future children of the happy couple? Young and Ayres had worked with Ayres on Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938) but their appearance together here is unusual, since feature films and series films occupied different spheres in the studio hierarchy. (Ironically, Robert Young would later follow the fictional Dr. Kildare into television medicine when, years later, he starred in the ABC drama Marcus Welby, MD.) Due to illness, Lionel Barrymore makes only a cursory appearance here as Kildare's mentor Dr. Gillespie.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Dr. Kildare's Crisis -
In this, the sixth Dr. Kildare movie set in the mythical Blair Hospital, all is going well in our good doctor's love life. He and fiancee Nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) are happily preparing for their nuptials, but a visit from Mary's ailing brother Douglas (Robert Young) casts a pall on the proceedings. Do his mood swings and auditory hallucinations hint at epilepsy? And does that forebode hereditary problems for the future children of the happy couple? Young and Ayres had worked with Ayres on Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938) but their appearance together here is unusual, since feature films and series films occupied different spheres in the studio hierarchy. (Ironically, Robert Young would later follow the fictional Dr. Kildare into television medicine when, years later, he starred in the ABC drama Marcus Welby, MD.) Due to illness, Lionel Barrymore makes only a cursory appearance here as Kildare's mentor Dr. Gillespie.
By Violet LeVoit
Quotes
Trivia
Emma Dunn (Mrs. Martha Kildare) and Ann Morriss (Betty) are listed in records playing those roles, but are not seen in the final print.
The Medical Society of New York wrote a letter to the PCA protesting the way epilepsy was presented in the movie. They objected to the claims that epilepsy is inherited, that it is curable and that it leads to insanity.
Notes
The working title for this film was Should Dr. Kildare Tell? The picture was the seventh in the Dr. Kildare series. A New York Times news item notes that although director Harold S. Bucquet's first choice for the role of Dr. Gillespie was series regular Lionel Barrymore, because Barrymore was ill at the time, the studio refused to let him work.
The MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library contains a letter from the A. W. Rudnick, Secretary of the National Creamery and Buttermaker's Association, to MPPDA President Will H. Hays, in which Rudnick complained that the film shows "people drinking milk and make[s] it appear that milk drinking is an object of ridicule." He went on to point out "I have failed to see a single movie where a young man or a young woman or an old man or an old woman has asked for milk when attending a cocktail party or gathering of any kind...The dairyman who sells fluid milk gets a higher income than any of the farmers and when the farmer has money he goes to the movies. He is a better customer of yours than the distillery employee or the coffee or tea dealer." Hays personally responded by assuring Rudnick that "there is no intention on the part of the organized industry to ridicule milk drinking." Furthermore, Hays informed Rudnick that he had noticed that in studio's dining rooms a large number of people were drinking milk daily. In 1941, the PCA received another letter of protest relating to the film, this time from the Medical Society of New York, which objected to the way in which epilepsy was presented in the film. The Society took issue with statements in the film claiming that "epilepsy is inherited, that epilepsy is curable, and that epilepsy progresses into insanity." For more information on the Dr. Kildare series, for Young Dr. Kildare.
