This was the third of the rediscovered films that Meriam Cooper had taken out of circulation in a business deal with RKO back in the 1940s, that Turner Classic Movies showed on Wednesday, April 4, 2006. Of the three it is the best, mostly due to a strong story about a country doctor over the years who discovers in the end that he was not the failure he felt he was, but that he gained the love and respect of the people of his town and of highly regarded medical specialists in New York City.
Lionel Barrymore was the first of the famous trio of siblings to gain an Academy Award (for A FREE SOUL in 1930 - 31) wherein he gave a terrific performance as a hard drinking criminal attorney who pulls himself together to save his daughter (Norma Shearer) from the gallows. His character in that screenplay had been based on the celebrated California attorney Earl Rogers, father of screenwriter Adele Rogers St. John. It remains one of the best of the early male Oscars. And he would fill the screen with other performances, frequently of crusty old gents with plenty of wisdom, in films like CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS and ON BORROWED TIME and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. All too frequently his detractors note a hammy tendency that got into his acting, it's true, but even when he is hammy Lionel can produce interest in whatever he's doing on stage or screen.
Here he is Eli Watt, a doctor who is returning to his native town with his six year old son Jimmy in tow. He tells the local banker (Oscar Apfel) that he could not make a real go of it in the big city, so he felt he should set up practice back in his home town. After getting a smaller mortgage than he would like (ironically he asks if the ink in his pen that he needs to sign the mortgage is free!) he sets up shop. Soon he is having his first customer. David Landau (the President of Darwin College in HORSE FEATHERS) is a farmer whose wife is pregnant. They don't have money, but can pay Watt in two bushels of potatoes. Watt (taking his son along) goes to Landau's farm. Unfortunately, while he saves the baby daughter that the wife gave birth to, complications killed the wife. A bitter Landau refuses to listen to Barrymore's attempts to get him to accept the little girl, and throws Barrymore, the baby and Barrymore's medical bag out.
The little girl is named Lettie by Barrymore. With the assistance of a housekeeper/old friend named Sarah (May Robson, in a typically great performance), Barrymore raises Lettie with his own son. However, four years later a reformed and penitent Landau returns, and convinces Barrymore to let him raise daughter again. As it turns out Landau really does reform, and Lettie grows up (as Dorothy Jordan) to be a decent person.
The film actually follows the odd situation Barrymore faces in the small town. He is the man the locals all go to for medical advice, and he is willing to take produce for it (much to the amazement of Apfel, who has to keep giving extensions on that mortgage to Barrymore as a result). We also see Jimmie grow into Joel Mcrae, and assist his father, until he is ready to study medicine too for a career as a doctor. Barrymore's moments of glory are mostly quiet ones. In the 1930s it was more common for doctors to do "house calls" than today - unfortunately - and Barrymore is seen going in all kinds of weather, even being upset in a sled (by the snow) on a call. Then he successfully fights a small pox epidemic among the poorer farmers when the local county medical group are busy with a typhoid epidemic. His success there is the first time his activities gain state wide attention.
Lettie assists in the small pox epidemic, and later she and her boyfriend Bill (James Rush) are in a car accident, that Barrymore again shows himself at his best in. He saves Bill's broken arm by fast emergency service, before Bill is taken to New York for final surgery. Mcrae is one of the surgeons with Barrymore in this event, and a leading New York specialist (Hale Hamilton) suggests that Barrymore could still make a first rate career in the city's leading research complex.
And here is the interesting point of the film - wherein I will cease further comments on the plot in specifics, except to say Barrymore does have his day of glory. It seems that the plot of this film looks (remarkably so) like IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. I realize that IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was supposed to be based on a story by Philip Van Doren Stern called "THE GREATEST GIFT". But the whole spirit of that film is that George Bailey wants to leave Bedford Falls and win his fortune outside in the great world. Every time he is about to do so he is prevented by the death of his father (oddly enough Samuel Hinds, who appears in a small role in this film), or by the actions of Potter, or the timidity and selfishness of the townspeople. The same thing happens here to Dr. Watt. He is in the position to leave, and comes close once to do so, but the illness of a friend prevents him. He never has his chance to show what he can do.
Of course, Watt (like George Bailey) does discover he was a great success because he helped his neighbors despite everything (as George did in the later film). But isn't it really ironic that the hero in this film is played by Lionel Barrymore, who was the devil incarnate villain Potter in the later film?
Lionel Barrymore was the first of the famous trio of siblings to gain an Academy Award (for A FREE SOUL in 1930 - 31) wherein he gave a terrific performance as a hard drinking criminal attorney who pulls himself together to save his daughter (Norma Shearer) from the gallows. His character in that screenplay had been based on the celebrated California attorney Earl Rogers, father of screenwriter Adele Rogers St. John. It remains one of the best of the early male Oscars. And he would fill the screen with other performances, frequently of crusty old gents with plenty of wisdom, in films like CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS and ON BORROWED TIME and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. All too frequently his detractors note a hammy tendency that got into his acting, it's true, but even when he is hammy Lionel can produce interest in whatever he's doing on stage or screen.
Here he is Eli Watt, a doctor who is returning to his native town with his six year old son Jimmy in tow. He tells the local banker (Oscar Apfel) that he could not make a real go of it in the big city, so he felt he should set up practice back in his home town. After getting a smaller mortgage than he would like (ironically he asks if the ink in his pen that he needs to sign the mortgage is free!) he sets up shop. Soon he is having his first customer. David Landau (the President of Darwin College in HORSE FEATHERS) is a farmer whose wife is pregnant. They don't have money, but can pay Watt in two bushels of potatoes. Watt (taking his son along) goes to Landau's farm. Unfortunately, while he saves the baby daughter that the wife gave birth to, complications killed the wife. A bitter Landau refuses to listen to Barrymore's attempts to get him to accept the little girl, and throws Barrymore, the baby and Barrymore's medical bag out.
The little girl is named Lettie by Barrymore. With the assistance of a housekeeper/old friend named Sarah (May Robson, in a typically great performance), Barrymore raises Lettie with his own son. However, four years later a reformed and penitent Landau returns, and convinces Barrymore to let him raise daughter again. As it turns out Landau really does reform, and Lettie grows up (as Dorothy Jordan) to be a decent person.
The film actually follows the odd situation Barrymore faces in the small town. He is the man the locals all go to for medical advice, and he is willing to take produce for it (much to the amazement of Apfel, who has to keep giving extensions on that mortgage to Barrymore as a result). We also see Jimmie grow into Joel Mcrae, and assist his father, until he is ready to study medicine too for a career as a doctor. Barrymore's moments of glory are mostly quiet ones. In the 1930s it was more common for doctors to do "house calls" than today - unfortunately - and Barrymore is seen going in all kinds of weather, even being upset in a sled (by the snow) on a call. Then he successfully fights a small pox epidemic among the poorer farmers when the local county medical group are busy with a typhoid epidemic. His success there is the first time his activities gain state wide attention.
Lettie assists in the small pox epidemic, and later she and her boyfriend Bill (James Rush) are in a car accident, that Barrymore again shows himself at his best in. He saves Bill's broken arm by fast emergency service, before Bill is taken to New York for final surgery. Mcrae is one of the surgeons with Barrymore in this event, and a leading New York specialist (Hale Hamilton) suggests that Barrymore could still make a first rate career in the city's leading research complex.
And here is the interesting point of the film - wherein I will cease further comments on the plot in specifics, except to say Barrymore does have his day of glory. It seems that the plot of this film looks (remarkably so) like IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. I realize that IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was supposed to be based on a story by Philip Van Doren Stern called "THE GREATEST GIFT". But the whole spirit of that film is that George Bailey wants to leave Bedford Falls and win his fortune outside in the great world. Every time he is about to do so he is prevented by the death of his father (oddly enough Samuel Hinds, who appears in a small role in this film), or by the actions of Potter, or the timidity and selfishness of the townspeople. The same thing happens here to Dr. Watt. He is in the position to leave, and comes close once to do so, but the illness of a friend prevents him. He never has his chance to show what he can do.
Of course, Watt (like George Bailey) does discover he was a great success because he helped his neighbors despite everything (as George did in the later film). But isn't it really ironic that the hero in this film is played by Lionel Barrymore, who was the devil incarnate villain Potter in the later film?