''Calling Dr. Kildare'' is a 1939 film in the

Dr. Kildare Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story, Paramount Pictur ...

series. Directed by Harold S. Bucquet, it stars

Lew Ayres Lewis Frederick Ayres III (December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996) was an American actor whose film and television career spanned 65 years. He is best known for starring as German soldier Paul Bäumer in the film '' All Quiet on the Western Fr ...

as the young Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie, his mentor. The second of

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

's series of Kildare films, it introduces

Laraine Day Laraine Day (born La Raine Johnson, October 13, 1920 – November 10, 2007) was an American actress, radio and television commentator, and former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) contract star. As a leading lady, she was paired opposite major film sta ...

as nurse Mary Lamont, the love of Kildare's life.

Plot

Dr. Leonard Gillespie, the crusty senior

diagnostician Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...

at New York's Blair General Hospital, has a severe disagreement with a pupil, intern James Kildare, over a suspected case of

Q fever Q fever or query fever is a disease caused by infection with ''Coxiella burnetii'', a bacterium that affects humans and other animals. This organism is uncommon, but may be found in cattle, sheep, goats, and other domestic mammals, including ...

. He decides to teach his stubborn assistant a lesson in dealing with the emotional causes of his patients' ills, as well as the physical. To accomplish this, he fires Kildare and has him reassigned to work in a neighborhood dispensary with nurse Mary Lamont, whom he enlists with the aid of head nurse Molly Byrd to " stooge" on the intern. On the day that Kildare begins his new job, young Red enters the dispensary and confidentially asks the intern to help an injured friend, Nick Lewett. He follows Red to a cellar hideout, where he discovers that Nick is suffering from a gunshot wound. Kildare is on the verge of sending Nick on to Blair when Nick's sister Rosalie convinces him not to do so. Against hospital procedure and the law requiring reporting of all gunshots to the police, Kildare continues to treat Nick in the hideout, even after he knows that the boy is wanted for the murder of bookmaker "Footsy" Garson over a gambling debt. Smitten with Rosalie, he tells Mary he knows that she has been reporting back to Gillespie on his activities. Despite Mary's resistance, Gillespie uses her obvious admiration for Kildare to persuade her to tell him what Kildare is up to, and tries to warn the intern that he is flirting with being an accessory to murder. He tries to persuade Kildare to at least reveal Nick's whereabouts, but Kildare is sure of Nick's innocence and refuses to do so. A worried Gillespie arranges with Kildare's mother to call him home to help his physician father with a difficult patient, but when the intern returns, he is picked up by the police along with Nick. For his involvement, Kildare is yet again suspended from the hospital staff, but remains determined to prove Nick's innocence. Learning from Nick that he went to see Garson after his friend Tom Crandell accused Garson of maligning Rosalie, Kildare decides to confront Crandell. With the help of ambulance driver Joe Wayman and his persuasive

monkey wrench The monkey wrench is a type of adjustable wrench, a 19th century American refinement of 18th-century English coach wrenches. It was widely used in the 19th and early 20th century. It is of interest as an antique among tool collectors and is sti ...

, Kildare compels Crandell into confessing that he killed Garson and shot Nick, suspicious of his relationship with Rosalie, to frame him. After Nick is exonerated, Gillespie visits Rosalie and deduces that she was Crandell's girlfriend. He steers her into admitting to Kildare that her only interest in him was to save her brother, and later confesses to Kildare that he arranged for Nick's arrest, but that Kildare almost ruined the plan by returning from home. A little wiser, Kildare resumes as Dr. Gillespie's assistant and begins to look at Nurse Lamont in a better light.

Cast

as Dr. James Kildare * Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Leonard Gillespie *

as Mary Lamont *

Nat Pendleton Nathaniel Greene Pendleton (August 9, 1895 – October 12, 1967) was an American Olympic wrestler, film actor, and stage performer. His younger brother, Edmund J. Pendleton (1899-1987), was a well-known music composer and choir master ...

as Joe Wayman *

Lana Turner Lana Turner ( ; born Julia Jean Turner; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized pe ...

as Rosalie Lewett *

Lynne Carver Lynne Carver (born Virginia Reid Sampson, September 13, 1916 – August 12, 1955) was an American film actress. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1934 and 1953. Early years Carver was born in Lexington, Kentucky. Her father, Reid Joh ...

as Alice Raymond *

Samuel S. Hinds Samuel Southey Hinds (April 4, 1875 – October 13, 1948) was an American actor and former lawyer. He was often cast as kindly authority figures and appeared in more than 200 films until his death. Early years Hinds was born in Brooklyn, New Y ...

as Dr. Stephen Kildare *

Emma Dunn Emma Dunn (26 February 1875 – 14 December 1966) was an English actress. After starting her acting career on stage in London, she became known for her works in numerous films and Broadway productions. Career Emma Dunn appeared onstage in ...

as Mrs. Martha Kildare *

Reed Hadley Reed Hadley (born Reed Herring, June 25, 1911 – December 11, 1974) was an American film, television and radio actor. Early life Hadley was born in Petrolia, Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one ...

as Tom Crandall *

Roger Converse Roger Converse (June 26, 1911 – September 21, 1994) was an American motion picture actor and MGM contract player of the late 1930s, who made a name for himself portraying gentlemen, boyfriends, and blue collar guys. Life and career He was bor ...

as Dr. Joiner

Release

''Calling Dr. Kildare'' was released in April 1939, the second in MGM's Kildare series. According to MGM records, the film earned $626,000 in the US and Canada and $266,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $307,000. ''New York Times'' reviewer

Frank Nugent Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...

, while bemoaning the damage done to artistic values by series pictures, still called it "pleasantly entertaining" and "on the whole, successfully sugar-coated". On January 21, 2014,

Warner Archive The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

released the film on Region 1 MOD-DVD as part of the "Dr. Kildare Movie Collection", containing all nine films starring Ayres and Barrymore.

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control 1939 films 1939 crime drama films American black-and-white films American crime drama films Films directed by Harold S. Bucquet Films set in New York City Films set in hospitals Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films