An idealistic young doctor (Ronald Colman) turns down an opportunity at research to become a small town doctor in order to appease his wife (Helen Hayes). Dissatisfied with the narrow mindedness of small town life, he eventually accepts an invitation to join a prestigious medical research laboratory in New York. Though directed by the great John Ford, Ford is a director for hire here (his boss was Samuel Goldwyn) and the film is not one of Ford's more notable efforts. I've not read the Sinclair Lewis source material which won the Pulitzer Prize, but on film, it's yet another "idealistic doctor sells out only to be humbled and return to his ideals" scenario.
THE CITADEL is another popular example of the genre. The West Indies plague sequence which occupies a large portion of the movie is very well done however and redeems the film. Outside of
A TALE OF TWO CITIES, I'm not a fan of Colman. Yes, he has a beautiful speaking voice but there never seems to be anybody at home. He's like a singer with a great technical voice but with very little interpretive prowess when it comes to lyrics. Hayes is stuck with the little wife role, waiting at home and wringing her hands. A pre-stardom Myrna Loy pops up in the West Indies but her role seems to have been severely cut or edited. There's the tiniest suggestion of an illicit affair between her and Colman which one gets from her furtive glances but little else. With Richard Bennett (father of Joan and Constance), John Qualen and Clarence Brooks.
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