The Citadel – 1938
This was a rather simple movie from a rather simpler time. It was the kind of movie that was specifically designed to make a statement. In this case, the statement was that the medical profession is a noble one as long as the practitioner’s motives remain pure. If you want to be a doctor, make sure you are in it to help the sick and the needy, not to make money. It is a great sentiment, but I just got beat over the head with it, and I don’t even want to be a doctor!
As such, the plot was shallow and uninspired, though I believe it’s heart was in the right place. But there was just no subtlety about it. It was not a scalpel. It was a sledge hammer. The plot was predictable in everything except the details. The characters were two-dimensional and predictable. The acting wasn’t bad, but the characters were simple and dull. I wouldn’t call it a horrible movie, but I would call it nothing more than average, not worthy of a Best Picture nomination.
Robert Donat, who I have seen play more interesting parts in better films, played Andrew Mason, an idealistic young Scottish doctor who accepts a position treating coal miners in Wales. Like many miners, a lot of them suffer from tuberculosis. He develops a passion for finding a cure, but his new and progressive ideas impress neither his superiors, nor his patients. They are only interested in sticking with the ineffective treatments that they know.
Undaunted, he begins doing research on his own with the help of his cookie-cutter and instant wife, Christine, played by Rosalind Russell. After having a professional conflict with her, and meeting her a second time by chance, giving him the opportunity to apologizes to her for the argument, he, on their third meeting, asks her to marry him. Of course, she accepts. Soon after, she is helping her husband in his research and the couple is happy.
But then, disgruntled miners ransack his personal laboratory because they think he is torturing guinea pigs. Andrew and Christine move to London where they live happily, but in poverty. Then Andrew begins to exclusively treat wealthy patients for minor ailments and becomes wealthy as a result. But as we all know, when a poor man becomes suddenly rich, he automatically becomes a jerk. He becomes a snob, mistreats his loving and loyal wife, and refuses to help his best friend, Dr. Philip Denny, played by Ralph Richardson.
Well, to make a long story short, the only way to snap Dr. Manson back to his old self is for Dr. Denny to fall off the wagon, get so drunk he can barely stand, and walk in front of a moving vehicle. Don’t worry, it happens off screen. Dr. Denny is taken to a hospital and goes under the knife of an incompetent surgeon. After he dies, Andrew instantly reverts to his old self. He begins to notice poverty and people in need everywhere. He is once again his former altruistic self and breaks the standard medical code of ethics to save the life of a friend’s daughter. He is then put on trial by his peers who want to take away his license to practice.
And here we come to the climax of the film. As with many films from this era, the climax comes very late in the game. The trial filled up the last 4 minutes or so of the film. During the last 3, Andrew goes into a speech about how important unconventional medical research is so important, citing scientists who were never officially doctors, like Louis Pasteur. He calls his accusers lazy hypocrites whose small-minded and short-sighted attitudes are causing the medical profession to become stagnant and unproductive.
Once the speech is done, he takes his wife by the hand and walks out of the courtroom, a changed man. We never get to see if the speech moved the men in the courtroom enough to save his career, though apparently the outcome didn’t seem to matter to the character. It was very preachy speech, but I can only assume that it was this closing speech that got Donat his Best Actor Oscar nomination. It was as if the entire film was just a set up for the speech.
There was another actor in the film who was so young that it took me a while to recognize him. Rex Harrison played Dr. Fredrick Lawford, the naughty physician who got Dr. Manson to start treating rich people in the first place. And while I’m at it, I have to give a special thumbs-up to Ralph Richardson for a job well done. Dr. Denny was a memorable character, and Richards did a good job playing a believable drunk.
On the flip side, though, the most annoying character in the movie had to be Dr. Manson’s first wealthy patient, Toppy LeRoy, played by Penelope Dudley Ward. The character was extremely one-note, but I don’t think it was her fault. It was just dull and lifeless writing for a minor character.