Staying in the theme of the last film, The Patsy, comes another great by director King Vidor. Starring British actor Robert Donat and Ms. Rosalind Russell, and adapted by A.J. Cornin. Robert plays Andrew, a new doctor eager to make a difference and help people. His first assignment is to help the people in a poor town plagued by Typhoid Fever. He helps sick patients, revives a newborn, and starts to really think of himself as a doctor. He meets fellow physician Denny, played by Ralph Richardson, and they both come to the conclusion that the Typhoid is streaming from the water source. Denny has the bright idea to blow up the water system as a means to fix the bad water conditions and help the people. Andrew is thrown by Denny's adventure and risk taking, but in the end goes along with him. The plan works and the new water system prevents another outbreak.
While treating a child with measles he encounters a pretty teacher named Christine. After a tiff about contagious kids staying home from school as opposed to coming to school sick and sitting in the corner with a glass of milk, the doctor and Christine meet up again when Christine ends up, naturally, sick. She should have listened to the good doctor!
Andrew wants more to his trade and decides to take a job in a miner's town treating the workers. Trouble is, they want a married doctor. Andrew really wants the job, and has the hots for Christine, so he asks her to marry him, without even knowing her first name. Naturally, she says yes. They marry, and Andrew starts his new job. He quickly realizes that the miners are all sick with lung issues and after much research discovers they all share Tuberculosis due to the mining dust. Andrew wants to do tests and study these men, and makes the lungs his focus, even to write his findings in a medical journal. But most of the miners just want a sick pass so they don't have to go to work. Andrew sticks up for himself and his integrity, and in return the minors destroy his research and he and Christine's hard work about this lung disease. Andrew has no better choice than to resign.
The pair move to London in hopes of Andrew starting a practice and getting back on his feet. Trouble is, nobody is calling, and he and his wife fall on hard times. They befriend a restaurant owner next door who feeds and helps them when she can. During lunch one day, the doctor is finally beckoned to help a poor soul in need. The soul turns out to be a spoiled socialite who has a meltdown at the dress shop. Andrew slaps it out of her and takes her home. There he meets an old colleague Dr. Lawford played by a very young Rex Harrison. He invites him to his hospital where the nurses are hired for their looks, each hospital room looks like a suite at the Ritz, and doctors are treating the rich where the only ailment is hypochondria.
Andrew soon gets into the scam. He is making more money than he knows what to do with it, and he and Christine can finally enjoy the nicer things in life. However, Christine is on to him. When she sees Andrew receiving a huge check for just watching another doctor do surgery and questions him about it, she realizes he isn't doing more than telling his patients what they want to hear and getting paid for it. Christine longs for the days where her husband wanted to make a difference, and stood up for what was right.
She tries to talk about it with Andrew, she even tells him she doesn't care to be rich and isn't happy. Andrew gets angry and storms off. Back at home, they run into old pal Denny. He has a plan to start a healthcare practice for anyone who can afford it with the best doctors, and invites Andrew on the team. Andrew scuffs at the idea, and while at their favorite lunch place hears about his old friend the restaurant owner share that her daughter is very sick and in the hospital with a condition Andrew is an expert in. He blows her off as well as he enjoys some cheese.
It seems everyone is aware of how much Andrew has changed. Denny is upset from being rebuffed and gets drunk off whisky. He shows up to tell Andrew what he really thinks about him and when he leaves he gets hit by a car. Andrew rushes to his side and takes him to the surgeon at the swanky hospital. The surgeon botches the surgery and Denny dies. Andrew is heartbroken. His best friend is dead due to incompetence. He realizes what he is involved with. Doctors who do nothing but collect a check and have no real care in helping people. Because of this they don't have the skills or knowledge to help anyone who is really in need. This tragic accident is just what Andrew needs to see what is really going on around him. Andrew must change if he wants to save his practice and his marriage and get back to being the doctor he used to be.
Vidor and Donat both earned Oscar nominations, as did the screen writers. Let's talk about King Vidor for a moment. As I mentioned before, King directed an array of films that covered topics about real people. His films are heartwarming and full of human emotion. In The Citadel, when newbie doctor Andrew delivers a dead baby and doesn't give up to finally have the baby come to life, you can feel the relief and pride on screen. As Andrew leaves the residence, he exclaims to himself, "Dear God, I am a doctor." Vidor had the ability to draw the audience in and have empathy with his characters, a skill not all directors share.
Vidor was born to Hungarian parents in Galveston, Texas. His work in show business started as a projectionist and eventually turned to script writing and directing for Boy City Film Company who made shorts focusing on American society issues. This might have influenced Vidor to tackle topics such as race, religion, and blue collar America. He eventually contracted with MGM and continued to make films into his eighties.
Rosalind Russell was on the brink of true fame when making The Citadel, with The Women and His Girl Friday releasing in 1939, and 1940. In this film, her character is sweet, supportive, and genuine as the wife of a doctor who has his ups and downs professionally. In the scene where the two meet in her classroom, he barges in while she is teaching and gives her the riot act. The class, full of about 8 year-olds, is perfectly still and silent the whole time. As a teacher I chuckled at this, as it is not in any way realistic, but cute nonetheless!
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