Welcome Stranger (1947) - Turner Classic Movies

Brief Synopsis

A small-town doctor resents the presence of a new younger physician and his newfangled ways.

Cast & Crew

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Elliott Nugent

Bing Crosby

Joan Caulfield

Barry Fitzgerald

Dr. Joseph McRory

Wanda Hendrix

Emily [Walters]

Frank Faylen

Photos & Videos

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Welcome Stranger - (Original Trailer)

Film Details

Genre

Comedy

Drama

Release Date

Jun 13, 1947

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Paramount Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

Paramount Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 47m

Sound

Mono

Color

Black and White

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Film Length

9,709ft

Synopsis

On a train en route to the small town of Fallbridge, Maine, Dr. Joseph McRory, the town's physician for thirty-five years, is about to go on a two-month vacation, when he meets an easy-going doctor from California named Jim Pearson. Unaware that Jim is his temporary replacement, McRory takes an immediate disliking to the young doctor because of his flippant attitude. Upon their arrival in Fallbridge, McRory, realizing who Jim is, makes plans to replace him as soon as possible, then goes fishing locally in case his patients should need him. At McRory's house, Jim meets the town's beautiful schoolteacher, Trudy Mason, who is engaged to stuffy pharmacist Roy Chesley, and begins to fall in love with her. He then ingratiates himself to the villagers by "calling" a square dance in McRory's honor. Jim's friendly professional manner proves effective when, asked by Emily, the shy daughter of Fallbridge's drunken newspaper editor, Bill Walters, to help her father, Jim cures him of his debilitating headaches by helping him to stop drinking whiskey. McRory's vacation is delayed when he has an attack of appendicitis, and, with Trudy's help, Jim successfully performs an emergency appendectomy and wins McRory's approval. After Trudy and Jim enjoy a town sleighride together, McRory encourages Jim not to allow his true love to marry another man, as McRory did years earlier. Later, while helping Jim deliver a baby, Trudy misses a date with Roy. When she returns home at dawn, Roy scolds her, then further infuriates her by saying that Jim is not interested in marriage. Tired of being fought over, Trudy breaks her engagement with Roy and refuses to see Jim. Meanwhile, Dr. Ronnie Jenks, whom McRory originally asked to replace Jim, opens up an office to compete with McRory. Next, Roy's father, C. J. Chesley, head of the town council, leads a fight to keep McRory from achieving his dream as the hospital's chief of surgery. When Jenks and McRory are both ordered to take an examination, Jim coaches McRory. During the test, however, the doctors are called to the schoolhouse to investigate an epidemic. After Jenks alarms the town by diagnosing the children with equine encephalitis, Jim and McRory discover that the schoolboys had simply been smoking cigarettes. Chesley, embarrassed at having called Washington, D.C. for a vaccine shipment, offers McRory the hospital position on the condition that Jim become his assistant. Jim and Trudy then decide to marry.

Director

Elliott Nugent

Cast

Bing Crosby

Joan Caulfield

Barry Fitzgerald

Dr. Joseph McRory

Wanda Hendrix

Emily [Walters]

Frank Faylen

Elizabeth Patterson

Robert Shane

Larry Young

Dr. Ronnie Jenks

Percy Kilbride

Charles Dingle

Don Beddoe

Thurston Hall

Congressman Beeker

Lillian Bronson

Mary Field

Paul Stanton

Pat Mcvey

Clarence Brooks

Erville Alderson

Clarence Muse

Ben Erway

Milton Kibbee

Ben, bus driver

John Westley

Edward Clark

Ethel Wales

Frank Ferguson

Elliott Nugent

Owen Tyree

Bea Allen

Telephone operator

Gertrude Hoffman

Douglas Wood

Charles Middleton

Fred Datig Jr.

Joe Recht

Charles R. Moore

Lucy Knoch

Girl on sleighride

Barbara Morrison

Girl on sleighride

Charles Mayon

Man on sleighride

William Meader

Man on sleighride

Jerry James

Man on sleighride

Mary Dickson

Woman on sleighride

John "skins" Miller

Regina Wallace

Caren Marsh

Tommy Tucker

Burton Howard

Richard Norman

Norman Ollestad Jr.

Leon Burbank

Eugene Persson

Ariane Allen Ross

Clarence Nordstrom

Brandon Hurst

Julia Faye

Crew

Franz Bachelin

Johnny Burke

Frank Butler

Sam Comer

Stanley Cooley

Sound Recording

Billy Daniels

Dances staged by

Robert Emmett Dolan

Everett Douglas

Hans Dreier

Farciot Edouart

Process Photography

Mel Epstein

Fill-in Assistant Director

Mel Epstein

Unit bus Manager

Edith Head

Joseph J. Lilley

Voc Arrangements

Lionel Lindon

Director of Photography

John Macneil

Richard Mcwhorter

Assistant Director

Mickey Moore

2d fill-in Assistant Director

Joel Moss

Sound Recording

Richard Nash

Jimmie Rosenberger

2d Assistant Director

Dr. Benjamin Sacks

Technical Advisor

Arthur Sheekman

Arthur Sheekman

Sol C. Siegel

Leroy Stone

Editing Supervisor

James Van Heusen

Wally Westmore

Makeup Supervisor

Videos

Welcome Stranger - (Original Trailer) Going My Way stars Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald reunite as small town doctors in Welcome Stranger (1947).

Film Details

Genre

Comedy

Drama

Release Date

Jun 13, 1947

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Paramount Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

Paramount Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 47m

Sound

Mono

Color

Black and White

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Film Length

9,709ft

Articles

Welcome Stranger (1947) - Welcome Stranger

October 10, 2012

Crusty Dr. McRory of Fallbridge, Maine hires a replacement for his vacation sight unseen. Alas, he and young singing doctor Jim Pearson don't hit it off; but Pearson is delighted to stay, once he meets teacher Trudy Mason.

Producer: Sol C. Siegel
Director: Elliott Nugent
Screenplay: Arthur Sheekman (screenplay and adaptation); N. Richard Nash (adaptation); Frank Butler (story)
Cinematography: Lionel Lindon
Art Direction: Franz Bachelin, Hans Dreier
Music: Robert Emmett Dolan
Film Editing: Everett Douglas
Cast: Bing Crosby (Dr. James 'Jim' Pearson), Joan Caulfield (Trudy Mason), Barry Fitzgerald (Dr. Joseph McRory), Wanda Hendrix (Emily Walters), Frank Faylen (Bill Walters), Elizabeth Patterson (Mrs. Gilley), Robert Shayne (Roy Chesley), Larry Young (Dr. Ronnie Jenks), Percy Kilbride (Nat Dorkas), Charles Dingle (Charles 'C.J.' Chesley)
BW-107m.

Welcome Stranger (1947) - Welcome Stranger

Welcome Stranger (1947) - Welcome Stranger

Crusty Dr. McRory of Fallbridge, Maine hires a replacement for his vacation sight unseen. Alas, he and young singing doctor Jim Pearson don't hit it off; but Pearson is delighted to stay, once he meets teacher Trudy Mason. Producer: Sol C. Siegel Director: Elliott Nugent Screenplay: Arthur Sheekman (screenplay and adaptation); N. Richard Nash (adaptation); Frank Butler (story) Cinematography: Lionel Lindon Art Direction: Franz Bachelin, Hans Dreier Music: Robert Emmett Dolan Film Editing: Everett Douglas Cast: Bing Crosby (Dr. James 'Jim' Pearson), Joan Caulfield (Trudy Mason), Barry Fitzgerald (Dr. Joseph McRory), Wanda Hendrix (Emily Walters), Frank Faylen (Bill Walters), Elizabeth Patterson (Mrs. Gilley), Robert Shayne (Roy Chesley), Larry Young (Dr. Ronnie Jenks), Percy Kilbride (Nat Dorkas), Charles Dingle (Charles 'C.J.' Chesley) BW-107m.

Quotes

Picture show's on Tuesday.
- Mrs. Gilley

What's showing Tuesday?
- Jim Pearson

Some picture with Bob Hope in it.
- Mrs. Gilley

I'll wait 'til a week from Tuesday.
- Jim Pearson

Trivia

Notes

Welcome Stranger reunited Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald, who starred together in the 1944 Academy Award winning Paramount film Going My Way. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, in early May, near the end of the shooting schedule for Welcome Stranger, assistant directors Dick McWhorter and Jimmie Rosenberger were replaced by unit business manager Mel Epstein and Mickey Moore because of time conflicts. A song entitled "Smack in the Middle of Maine," which was written by Johnny Burke and James Van Heusen for the film, was not used in the final version.
Portions of this film were shot at the Paramount ranch in Calabasas, at Lake Munz, and in the San Fernando Valley, CA. According to Par News, British censorship rules prohibiting the use of such words as "ether" and "anesthetic," as well as the showing of surgical instruments, necessitated filming the emergency appendectomy scenes twice. In the English version, instruments in the operating room cabinets were covered with towels, and the use of dissolves created the impression of the actual operation. Barry Fitzgerald reprised his role in a April 5, 1954 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast, co-starring Cary Grant.

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