This is a long and rather ambitious film that has about as much going for it as it has going against it. The film is about an earnest medical student (Robert Mitchum) who is struggling to pay his way. Unable to scrape up money anywhere, his only prospect is to either quit school or marry spinster Olivia de Havilland. In a very odd bit of casting, de Havilland has had her hair dyed blonde and sports a rather cheesy Swedish accent. Also, while she was only a year older than Mitchum in real life, she plays a woman who appears about a decade older than the virile Mitchum. Mitchum really doesn't love her but he does seem to like her but not appreciate what a great gal she is.
Interestingly enough, de Havilland is not the only Swedish-American in the film. Virginia Christine (known to most Americans as "Mrs. Olsen" from the old Folger's commercials) and Harry Morgan also are on hand. Christine sounded Swedish since she spoke Swedish in real life, but Morgan so over-did the accent it was embarrassing. John Qualen, long known for playing such roles, would have been much better than Morgan, but he was not in the film. Why they chose them to be Swedes, I really don't know, as this was NOT important to the film.
Back to the film. In medical school, Mitchum was a top student with a great mind but he also had a strong superiority complex--and seemed very judgmental of others. Several times throughout the film this became an issue and by the end of the film, this became the main focus of the stirring conclusion.
After medical school, Mitchum and wife went off to a small town to work in a hospital. Oddly, the first and second halves of the movie were almost like two separate movies and both lasted about as long as a shorter full-length movie. In both were an amazing variety of actors that show that this obviously was a big-budget film for first-time director, Stanley Kramer (who went on to much greater things, except for THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION, which was the awful film that immediately followed NOT AS A STRANGER). In support of Mitchum and de Havilland were Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Lon Chaney, Jr. and Lee Marvin (among others). So because of this, you can't blame the mediocrity of the film on the actors and Kramer was a great director. My feeling is that the plot was just too complex and soap opera-like. The film is a good example of a movie that might have been better had it been a bit shorter and simpler, as well as a bit less histrionic (as it was on occasion, such as when de Havilland threw a temper tantrum in a room by herself near the end for no discernible reason whatsoever).
Overall, it's an interesting but obvious film that could have benefited from a bit of a re-write.
Interestingly enough, de Havilland is not the only Swedish-American in the film. Virginia Christine (known to most Americans as "Mrs. Olsen" from the old Folger's commercials) and Harry Morgan also are on hand. Christine sounded Swedish since she spoke Swedish in real life, but Morgan so over-did the accent it was embarrassing. John Qualen, long known for playing such roles, would have been much better than Morgan, but he was not in the film. Why they chose them to be Swedes, I really don't know, as this was NOT important to the film.
Back to the film. In medical school, Mitchum was a top student with a great mind but he also had a strong superiority complex--and seemed very judgmental of others. Several times throughout the film this became an issue and by the end of the film, this became the main focus of the stirring conclusion.
After medical school, Mitchum and wife went off to a small town to work in a hospital. Oddly, the first and second halves of the movie were almost like two separate movies and both lasted about as long as a shorter full-length movie. In both were an amazing variety of actors that show that this obviously was a big-budget film for first-time director, Stanley Kramer (who went on to much greater things, except for THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION, which was the awful film that immediately followed NOT AS A STRANGER). In support of Mitchum and de Havilland were Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Lon Chaney, Jr. and Lee Marvin (among others). So because of this, you can't blame the mediocrity of the film on the actors and Kramer was a great director. My feeling is that the plot was just too complex and soap opera-like. The film is a good example of a movie that might have been better had it been a bit shorter and simpler, as well as a bit less histrionic (as it was on occasion, such as when de Havilland threw a temper tantrum in a room by herself near the end for no discernible reason whatsoever).
Overall, it's an interesting but obvious film that could have benefited from a bit of a re-write.