Even without Dr. Kildare and even with a bazillion plot holes, MGM managed to make a very entertaining (but very stupid) film in CALLING DR. GILLESPIE. On one hand, it has very sparkling dialog and wonderful characters, but on the other, its treatment of mental illnesses was crude and the film was chock full of plot holes.
When the film begins, you soon notice that there's no Dr. Kildare. That's because Lew Ayers was a conscientious objector and the fans turned on him, so the studio replaced him with a very strange choice--Philip Dorn and his thick Dutch accent. Now in Ayers defense, he did NOT sit the war out but served as a corpsman--one of the most dangerous and honorable of jobs in the service. He just wasn't willing to kill anyone because appearing in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT fundamentally changed him--making him an ardent pacifist.
So, without Kildare, the case was a bit different--with a tale about a mentally ill man. This time, Dorn played a young doctor who wanted to specialize in psychiatry, so such a case was right up his alley. The case involved a young man who acted normal one minute and was a homicidal maniac the next. First, he killed a dog with a huge rock for no particular reason. Second, he smashed up a store display window in a maniacal rage. Despite this, his idiot parents and family doctor were in denial. Well, when he ran away, suddenly they realized they had a problem on their hands.
While on the run, the patient's problems escalated. Now he was delusional, paranoid and very sociopathic--eventually murdering with little provocation. Additionally, he had the strange notion that Dr. Gillespie was at the root of his problems--kill Dr. Gillespie and the problems will vanish! So, much of the film is spent trying to stop this mad man before it was too late for the cantankerous Gillespie.
Now although this was a very thrilling plot, the way it was handled was often laughable. I loved with Gillespie and his young protégé talked to the mad man's parents. They broke it to them by saying "Your son is a mental case!"--talk about subtle and building up to the bad news! Additionally, there was a silly trigger for the man's murderous rages. Supposedly every time he hears a train whistle, he goes crazy--even though such mental illnesses are possible only in movies! Additionally, there are way too many "too stupid to live" moments--especially towards the end. They know he's murdered and yet when his fiancée (Donna Reed) finds him, she doesn't call for help and acts as if he'll be okay. In fact, after a dramatic attempt to stop the murderer, in the final scene, Gillespie tells the police to leave the room and let him talk to the psychopath--at which time, surprise, surprise, he tries to kill Gillespie! Duh!! That could be because he is CRAZY!!! So, we have a very dumb addition to the series that is fun to watch but dopey too many times to take seriously.
It's a decent time-passer but that is all. I actually gave the film a 5 (though in many ways it deserved less) because I absolutely loved the performance of Gillespie's receptionist, Parker. She had some of the greatest lines I ever heard in any of the films in the series--what a spitfire!!
Oh, and by the way, in the final scene, there are a couple nurses. The one on the left (unbilled) is a very, very young Ava Gardner.
When the film begins, you soon notice that there's no Dr. Kildare. That's because Lew Ayers was a conscientious objector and the fans turned on him, so the studio replaced him with a very strange choice--Philip Dorn and his thick Dutch accent. Now in Ayers defense, he did NOT sit the war out but served as a corpsman--one of the most dangerous and honorable of jobs in the service. He just wasn't willing to kill anyone because appearing in ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT fundamentally changed him--making him an ardent pacifist.
So, without Kildare, the case was a bit different--with a tale about a mentally ill man. This time, Dorn played a young doctor who wanted to specialize in psychiatry, so such a case was right up his alley. The case involved a young man who acted normal one minute and was a homicidal maniac the next. First, he killed a dog with a huge rock for no particular reason. Second, he smashed up a store display window in a maniacal rage. Despite this, his idiot parents and family doctor were in denial. Well, when he ran away, suddenly they realized they had a problem on their hands.
While on the run, the patient's problems escalated. Now he was delusional, paranoid and very sociopathic--eventually murdering with little provocation. Additionally, he had the strange notion that Dr. Gillespie was at the root of his problems--kill Dr. Gillespie and the problems will vanish! So, much of the film is spent trying to stop this mad man before it was too late for the cantankerous Gillespie.
Now although this was a very thrilling plot, the way it was handled was often laughable. I loved with Gillespie and his young protégé talked to the mad man's parents. They broke it to them by saying "Your son is a mental case!"--talk about subtle and building up to the bad news! Additionally, there was a silly trigger for the man's murderous rages. Supposedly every time he hears a train whistle, he goes crazy--even though such mental illnesses are possible only in movies! Additionally, there are way too many "too stupid to live" moments--especially towards the end. They know he's murdered and yet when his fiancée (Donna Reed) finds him, she doesn't call for help and acts as if he'll be okay. In fact, after a dramatic attempt to stop the murderer, in the final scene, Gillespie tells the police to leave the room and let him talk to the psychopath--at which time, surprise, surprise, he tries to kill Gillespie! Duh!! That could be because he is CRAZY!!! So, we have a very dumb addition to the series that is fun to watch but dopey too many times to take seriously.
It's a decent time-passer but that is all. I actually gave the film a 5 (though in many ways it deserved less) because I absolutely loved the performance of Gillespie's receptionist, Parker. She had some of the greatest lines I ever heard in any of the films in the series--what a spitfire!!
Oh, and by the way, in the final scene, there are a couple nurses. The one on the left (unbilled) is a very, very young Ava Gardner.