... to quote Bill Murray in "Tootsie". This is just not any 30's hospital drama, for this one has some touches that remind me of David Lynch. For one thing, Robert Taylor, who is so smooth in his later leading roles, has apparently been directed to play it a bit odd when he has moments alone with the leading lady. It's impossible to pay attention to his dialogue with all of the strange and unnatural gestures he's making and his weird facial expressions. He acts like a high school kid on his first date. Oddly enough, this is the film that convinced Louis B. that Robert Taylor deserved to be promoted to leading roles.
Chester Morris, who I love in just about every movie I've ever seen him in, holds his own in this one too as Dr. Robert Morgan, whom Robert Taylor's character looks up to like a big brother. Morgan has some strange ideas about romance and physicians - he believes that a doctor only has room in his life for floozies and meal tickets when it comes to women, and he finds his meal ticket - at least for awhile - in the person of Mrs. Crane (Billie Burke) a hypochondriac society lady who decides to back Morgan's entry into private practice. He sits bored in a chair in the matron's hospital room, looking like the puppet on a string he has become, as she goes on and on about how to decorate his new office. Hilarious. Billie Burke's ditzy touch is just what this film needs to let you know this entire thing is being played tongue in cheek.
The weirdest part of the film is when an escaped convict/gangster shoots Morgan and then Morgan, still semi-conscious, directs his own surgery while looking in a mirror so he can personally supervise the rerouting of his insides. Will he survive? Only the "MGM News" boy knows for sure! That's right, this film didn't even give the daily newspaper showing us the outcome of the surgery a credible name, they just use it for some shameless promotion and an obvious joke by calling it the "MGM News".
I could fill three more paragraphs about what is so wrong yet so entertainingly offbeat about this film, but I think you get the idea. Recommended for the weirdness of it all. Just don't come to this expecting a fore-runner to Doctor Kildare.
