Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

LeonLouisRicci It Might Come as a Surprise to Very Young Fans of TV's "House" or Pay TV's "The Knick" that Medical Dramas with High Personality Doctors were Around and Popular Even in the Thirties. This was a Long Running Series of B-Movies from MGM and this was The Origin Story.Lew Ayers Plays Kildare with a Great Voice and a Sombre Pretty Face and Not Much Else but He is Acceptable and lets Lionel Barrymore's Sarcasms and Put Downs Steal the Show. Nat Pendleton is the Comedic Companion, an Ambulance Driver.Spicing Up Things is a Detective Like Inquiry out of the Hospital and a Psychiatric Case that is Pure Bunkum. Overall Worth a Watch for this is the Initial Entry and if You Like it there are Many More to Follow. Average as These Things Go, but it was a Very Popular Series.Note...Richard Chamberlain brought the Character to TV in the early Sixties and competed with Vince Edwards as Dr. Ben Casey on a rival Network.

Robert J. Maxwell Lew Ayres returns from medical school to his family. Dad is a doctor himself -- it runs in families -- and expects him to set up his office in the spare room so they can have a joint practice at home. But Ayres sadly informs his father that he's accepted an internship at famous Blair Hospital in New York, because, well, he feels there's more he wants to do than become a simple small-town practitioner. Dad nods understandingly. "It's true you can't make much money as a country doctor." The film doesn't pause long enough for the laughter to expire at this point.Well, Blair Hospital is a tough place, let me tell you. There are hide-bound administrators, elderly and out-of-touch specialists, and then there is Dr. Gillespie. That would be cranky old Lionel Barrymore bound in his wheelchair. He has a lot of juice around Blair Hospital and takes no guff from anybody. He treats new interns the way Mr. Murdstone treated David Copperfield.Ayres works his butt off, rushing around in ambulances, treating drunks and children, until he runs into a mysterious young woman who has attempted suicide. She won't reveal her identity but she has obvious class. She comes up with an archaic expression in French, so you can tell.Aside from Ayres' relationship with the home town girl we are absolutely certain is going to snag him, this is the big conflict. Who is this society dame and why did she try to off herself? Everybody else at Blair is convinced she's psychotic and they want to put her away, but Ayres believes she's quite sane and is suffering from genuine guilt.He's right, of course. But before he can prove it and get all the rewards coming to him, the movie must turn into a detective story in which the fresh-faced Ayres, accompanied by the affably physical Nat Pendleton, uncovers the secret she's hiding. It was all a misunderstanding. The classy babe melts into the arms of her sweetheart and Ayres takes off with the Homecoming Queen of Cockaigne.I don't know why this was so popular in its time. The cast is likable enough. Lew Ayres is youthful and handsome. (He was to come under a cloud a few years later for being a conscientious objector during the war. Kids, that's World War II. He served as a medic and was under fire but it didn't help much.) Lionel Barrymore is good as the whiny voiced curmudgeon. Still, this was the movie that launched a thousand sequels and there's nothing special about it. I suppose they were cheap enough and, in the absence of TV, audiences enjoyed seeing characters they were already familiar with.The story is by Max Brand, of all people. He wrote for Western pulp magazines mostly. A few of his stories became films, most notably "Destry Rides Again."

blanche-2 Lew Ayres is "Young Dr. Kildare" in this 1938 film that began the popular "Dr. Kildare" series. Later, "Dr. Kildare" would become a TV series and launch Richard Chamberlain.Here we meet Dr. K and his parents (Samuel S. Hinds and Emma Dunn). Kildare's father is a country doctor, and James decides against partnering with him. He wants to intern at Blair General Hospital. As the film unfolds, he wonders if this was the wisest choice.Kildare spends most of the movie in trouble up to his eyeballs, first with the attempted suicide of a society woman that he interferes in, and secondly with Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore), who's a real bear. Gillespie becomes a lot mellower as the years go on, but in this initial episode, watch out! Kildare spends most of the film on the verge of being suspended, and he just got there.Though sometimes the series did approach correct medical treatment and terms, "Young Dr. Kildare" misses that boat with its suicide case. I guess no one had ever heard of anyone being emotionally disturbed - this poor young woman was almost institutionalized because the head psychiatrist in the hospital thinks she's a schizophrenic. Kildare challenges his notion and runs all over town trying to find out why she attempted suicide. The reason is pure 1930s Hollywood.One reason these films are fun is that MGM used them as a training ground for some of its young stars - Van Johnson, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner and Margaret O'Brien, to name a few. In this film, Monty Wooley - not young, but still in the small part phase of his career - makes an appearance.The "Dr. Kildare" series continued into the late 1940s, in 1942 becoming the "Dr. Gillespie" series with the same cast minus Lew Ayres, persona non grata at MGM for being a conscientious objector during World War II. Ayres did serve as a medic and chaplain on the front lines, but his principles garnered a lot of publicity and were not popular with the public, so the studio got rid of him. After World War II, he received an Oscar nomination for his role in "Johnny Belinda" and he worked until 1994, two years before his death. In 1950-51, he was Dr. Kildare on the radio. He nearly became a television Dr. K, but the network refused to honor his request for no cigarette sponsorship. When you have the courage to stand by your beliefs, as Ayres did, you soon find yourself out of a job.

Captain Ken One of the great series shown on TV in my youth was Dr. Kildare with the outstanding Lionel Barrymore as the wise Dr. Gillespie. Each film gave insight into human nature and the medical profession without sex or swearing. Just plain good stories.It is a shame all Dr. Kildare films are not available on VHS. I do not understand why not Dr. Kildare always had great acting and great advice. America needs films like these today