The Doctor and the Girl (1949) User Reviews

Medicine And Romance

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 21 October 2009]

In The Doctor And The Girl Harry Cohn decided to sell off half of Glenn Ford's contract to MGM for his services as half of the title of the film. It was the same kind of deal Cohn had with William Holden when he bought half of Holden's contract with Paramount. Now Ford would serve two studios and for loanouts in the future he'd have to have his schedule with both MGM and Columbia clear.

I hope you all that Ford was the doctor part of the title role. The girl is Janet Leigh, but there are two other prominent female roles and they play Ford's sisters, Gloria DeHaven and future first Lady Nancy Davis. They're all Charles Coburn's children and he's a prominent doctor.

Who has every expectation of seeing his son follow in his footsteps and he lays down the law to everyone else be they his children or his colleagues. The youngest Gloria DeHaven rebels, but in very unhealthy ways. Nancy has married a doctor herself in the person of Warner Anderson, but Anderson is determined to succeed as a pediatrician on his own thank you very much without Coburn's help.

But Ford starts off as a chip off the old arrogant block, but after some time working in Bellevue the arrogance flakes off, especially after meeting patient Janet Leigh who is in for some surgery. She's alone in the big city until Ford enters her life.

And Coburn doesn't consider her a suitable candidate for being a doctor's wife. That and his attitude towards his kids in general sets off the plot events in The Doctor And The Girl. He's a tyrannical old cuss, very typical of some of the parts he's played.

Though Glenn Ford had been making movies, mostly at Columbia for ten years he was new to the MGM studio. As was Janet Leigh. The film was shot on location in New York City. I recognize the facade of Bellevue Hospital, nothing much has changed their in 60 years. Of course if the camera were turned to the other side of the street on First Avenue, a great deal has changed.

And as for the disparaging remarks about the working class area of Third Avenue where Janet Leigh lives and to where Ford moves when he marries her, that is some of the most expensive real estate in the world. The cost of their apartment in that same general location would boggle the mind.

Ford and Leigh were fairly new, but for Nancy Davis this was her second film and first speaking role. It was definitely no acting stretch because in real life she was the daughter of a rich and prominent physician, Dr. Loyal C. Davis of Chicago. I'll bet Dr. Davis was a whole lot like Charles Coburn in manner. He was definitely his daughter's mentor in politics and also a mentor for his son-in-law our 40th President.

There are two other roles of prominence, Bruce Bennett has a very nice role as Ford's supervisor at Bellevue, he was an army doctor in the second World War and he's a bit put out with Ford's vaunted connections and let's him know it. And Basil Ruysdael is in a part that fits him perfectly the wise old family friend to Coburn and his clan. Ruysdael is also a doctor, a most prominent surgeon.

The Doctor And The Girl is a good addition to the roll of medical dramas. It's not all that different from what folks would be seeing soon on the small screen with Medic, Dr. Kildare, and Ben Casey. And remember this is MGM the people who did produce the Dr. Kildare series for the big screen.

Good film, with Glenn Ford as a young doctor

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 21 March 2012]

Glenn Ford is a young doctor from a well-connected family in "The Doctor and the Girl," a 1949 film also starring Janet Leigh, Charles Coburn, Gloria de Haven, Bruce Bennett, and Nancy Davis, our former first lady.

Ford plays Dr. Michael Corday, an up and coming doctor who comes to do a rotation in a hospital and brings a lot of his well-known doctor/father's attitudes with him. The senior Dr. Corday (Coburn) has fixed attitudes about family and medicine and runs his home with an iron fist. The first night that Michael returns home from his medical training, his sister Fabienne (de Haven) announces that she's moving to Greenwich Village. In those days it was absolutely unheard of for an unmarried woman to move out of the parental home, so her father's not happy.

Michael isn't liked at the hospital. He's snobby, brusque, and too clinical, interested in his work but not people. Then he runs into a woman he processed in the outpatient ward, Evelyn (Leigh), who is waiting for lung surgery, and he realizes how cold he was to her. He works to make it up to her, and they wind up falling in love, and over his father's strenuous objections, he marries her and gives up the important residency he was promised. He and Evelyn move to her Third Avenue apartment, and Michael sets up practice. Meanwhile, the only child that hasn't disappointed the senior Corday is Mariette (Davis), who is marrying a doctor (when her dad sets the date) and is living at home. Corday Sr. soon learns the effect of his rigidity.

I really liked this film. It was an absorbing family drama, maybe on the soapy side, but there's nothing wrong with that when the characters are well depicted. Glenn Ford is very sincere and likable in his role and gets to show a little more dramatic range than usual; the pretty Leigh is lovely as Evelyn, frail but with an inner toughness. The rest of the cast is solid. Bruce Bennett plays the ENT doctor Michael has to deal with on his rotation. Bennett was in countless films, an Olympic champion in 1928, and died 5 years ago at the age of 100.

Very good movie, well worth seeing.

Curtis Bernhardt's masterful direction makes this a superior movie

[GodeonWay · 8/10 · 17 March 2018]

Other reviewers of The Doctor and the Girl have rightfully praised its excellent treatment of a plot-line that at first glance seems familiar, even hackneyed. Of course, the sterling performances of everybody on screen are a huge asset to the picture. But for me, the gold medal has to be given to Curtis Bernhardt's expert handling of Theodore Reeves' adroit screenplay.

It's a tightly-paced film, with very few exteriors. But Bernhardt's brilliant interiors give superb depth to each scene and each character, from stern Charles Coburn to sylphlike Janet Leigh to earnest Bruce Bennett (in a great supporting role as an unassuming ENT specialist). The director keeps everybody's performance low-key and believable. In her first scenes, sickly Janet Leigh seems to be wearing no makeup at all. And even Charles Coburn isn't allowed to milk his scenes to the limit.

A master of lighting and camera angles, Bernhardt was one of the numerous excellent filmmakers in exile from Nazi Germany. His filmography is a strong one, studded with many entertaining films of the forties and fifties. Conflict, starring a quintessential Humphrey Bogart, and My Reputation with Barbara Stanwyck at her best, are two goodies that come to mind. And let's not forget Possessed, highlighted by Joan Crawford's hallucinatory performance.

But unlike some other exiled directors - such as Wilder, Lubitsch, Lang and Sirk - Curtis Bernhardt hasn't got any universally acclaimed masterpieces on his résumé, so he is often neglected by movie historians. But he was certainly a talent to reckon with, and any of his pictures deserve a careful look.

P.S. I totally concur with EliotTempleton's comments about Hollywood having a very long history of movies with medical themes. In fact Theodore Reeves, the main writer for this film, was the author of many medical screenplays dating back to the 1930s.

Top notch in a different era in medicine

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 6 July 2015]

SPOILER ALERT!!!!! This is a top notch film with a good script and excellent acting.

First off, the script. Basically you have a dysfunctional family headed by somewhat of a tyrant of a father (Charles Coburn). The main character of the story -- Glenn Ford -- is a young doctor and the son of Coburn. Coburn has his son's medical career all plotted out for him, and at first Ford follows his father's script in being a very efficient doctor with no bedside manner. He falls in love with a hospital patient (Janet Leigh) who is from the other side of the tracks (or in this case, the other side of the avenue). The father basically disowns the son, Meanwhile, another daughter (Gloria DeHaven) is a bit too wild, also rebels against her father, and does a self-given abortion. Another daughter -- Nancy Davis (Reagan) stays with the father, but is sympathetic toward her siblings and their situations. Is it a bit soapy? Well, a bit. But it's a good story, and I was particularly interested in the home medical practice depicted, which was very much like my childhood doctor's practice (although he lived in a decent home, rather than an extended apartment (and incidentally, this film was made the year I was born, and I think it's a fairly decent representation of the practice of medicine at the time).

While Glenn Ford isn't one of my favorite actors, I usually enjoy his work, and I would have to say that this was among his best roles. By the time this film was made, he was really coming into his own.

Charles Coburn is such an interesting character actor. He was as comfortable playing the kindly, humorous character, or in this case, the curmudgeon. And in playing this type of role, he never seemed to go overboard. Always played it just right to make it believable.

Gloria DeHaven was a "satisfactory" actress, but never in the "A" range. Here she does very nicely. Bruce Bennett, as another doctor, is very good here, as in Warner Anderson. Janet Leigh turns in a very effective performance as the seriously ill girl who becomes Ford's wife; one of her better roles! Basil Ruysdael -- one of those character actors you immediately recognize but whose name you don't know -- is superb here as the wise old doctor and family confidant...top notch! Nancy Davis, wife of Ronald Reagan, was another "satisfactory" actress; she does nicely here.

I'll tell you how good this film is: after watching it, I immediately ordered if from Amazon! A very good story, excellent acting, and more realism than you often see from Hollywood.

Life and Death Subject Matter Handled Well

[tr-83495 · 7/10 · 10 July 2019]

Even though it's reminiscent of pure soap opera, there is something legitimate here to keep you watching. In this case, it's the life and death subject matter and the "doctor's" decision to practice medicine in the poor part of town that keep the film vibrant. Parts are played well by all actors, allowing the plotline to be preeminent, as it should be.

We have a cohesive narrative here produced sensibly and wisely -- that reins it in, and takes it out of the realm of soap opera. This movie is "thinking" entertainment and is well worth watching.

Not bad...

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 22 April 2012]

Considering that Charles Coburn is a supporting actor in this film, it's not at all surprising that I watched "The Doctor and the Girl", as he's one of my favorite actors from Hollywood's golden age.

Glenn Ford plays a brilliant young doctor--and the son of a brilliant and well-respected older doctor (Coburn). Ford really looks up to his father and wishes to be just like him--including having a VERY dispassionate outlook towards his patients. At first, those around the doctor at the hospital didn't like him--he was too emotionally disconnected from his patients' pain. But, through the course of the film, he has lots of reason to second-guess this approach....as well as other aspects of this domineering man he'd so long idolized.

Overall, this is a decent little film. However, to me, the ending seemed pretty weak and difficult to believe. Still, it's a bit better than average and worth your time if you, too, are a Coburn-ite! Glenn Ford--overplayed his 'dispassionate' act

Good acting, well-written plot

[taylorje · 10/10 · 2 September 2006]

Dr. Michael Corday (played by Glenn Ford), only son of Dr. John Corday (Charles Coburn), has just graduated from medical school and returned home. His father, a prominent Manhattan physician, expects Michael to follow in his footsteps. Michael is annoyed at having to intern at an inner-city hospital and is rude and arrogant to his patients.

Michael's two sisters, Mariette (played by Nancy Davis, who later became First Lady Nancy Reagan) and Fabienne (Gloria DeHaven), still live at home but are planning their futures. Mariette is engaged to marry a young pediatrician. Fabienne announces that she is moving to Greenwich Village to live on her own. The family is shocked, but Michael supports Fabienne's decision.

Michael meets an attractive young woman named Taffy (played by Janet Leigh) at the hospital. He is arrogant with her, but she stands up to him and tells him to "remember that I'm a patient, doctor." He later apologizes and takes a personal interest in her case. Taffy requires surgery, and Michael uses his clout to obtain the services of a prominent physician. Meanwhile, his father has heard about Taffy, and disapproves because she is poor. Dr. Corday Sr. has Taffy discharged from the hospital before she is strong enough to leave, and warns Michael to stay away from her. But Michael defies his father and eventually marries Taffy, thereby cutting himself off from his family. Fabienne is on a path to self-destruction; her affair with a married man leads to tragedy; only Mariette remains the same calm, capable oldest child throughout the movie. Dr. Corday's attempts to control his adult children lead to arguments, estrangement, tragedy, and eventually a reuniting of the family.

She's Janet Leigh

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 9 July 2019]

Michael Corday (Glenn Ford) is an arrogant medical school graduate. His father is a highly successful doctor in New York City. He fights with his sister who wants to move out with her boyfriend. He begins an internship at Bellevue Hospital. He dislikes the chaos and dismisses the patients. He is reprimanded for his bad bedside manners. He tries to be nice to candy store girl Evelyn (Janet Leigh) and starts to fall in love with his patient. His father disapproves of the budding relationship and threatens to pull his support.

This movie feels rather dated and I'm not complaining about it. She's Janet Leigh and his father is bent out of shape. Just look at her. Have you got eyes? Quite frankly, she's a grounded character. Her greatest sin is poverty. The father's argument should be that she's a gold-digger. It shouldn't be a matter of professional advancement. If they want to marry, she can dress up to be a doctor's wife. His advancement should be a separate issue after he starts up the clinic for the poor. The dated morality actually holds a bit of interest for me. On the other hand, the drama isn't that high.

In answer to SimonJack's review on 6-3-2013

[EliotTempleton · 8/10 · 28 February 2015]

I just wanted to say that the above reviewer is a bit misinformed regarding the history of films about physicians, particularly in the '30s. There was no shortage of movies with doctors as the central character in the early sound era, and some of them are "Men in White," "Internes Can't Take Money," "The Citadel," "Strange Interlude," "Symphony of Six Million," "Arrowsmith," "Yellow Jack," "Doctor X" "The Story of Louis Pasteur," just to name a few off the top of my head, without doing any research. Paramount's "Internes Can't Take Money," starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea, was the first movie to feature the character of Dr. James Kildare, created by author Max Brand. I'm sure that the studio's executives rued the fact that they didn't have the foresight to feature the sympathetic young doctor in a series, which is what M-G-M did, starring Lew Ayres as the compassionate and crusading Dr. Jimmy Kildare. That series, by the way, started in the '30s with "Young Dr. Kildare" in 1938, followed by "Calling Dr. Kildare" and "The Secret of Dr. Kildare" in 1939. So, you see, there were quite a few doctors gracing movie screens throughout the 1930s.

Was it love or merely pity?

[estherwalker-34710 · 7/10 · 31 January 2023]

One of Glenn Ford's lesser-remembered films. Soon, recent Harvard medical school graduate and aspiring surgeon Dr. Mike Corday has an unexpected central dilemma. He has fallen in love with one of his patients(played by Janet Leigh), or has he? Initially, he pitied her because of her impoverished background, and not having any visitors during her long hospital stay. This was quite unusual for him, as normally he treated his patients quite formally and briskly, as his chief surgeon father( the charismatic Charles Colburn) had instructed him to do. He began bringing her extra food, as she needed to build up her strength before her lung operation. Gradually, he realized that he was falling in love with her. After all, she wasn't a bad-looking woman. His attention to her had caught the eye of the hospital staff, including his father, who had warned him that the next few years was the time to gain experience toward becoming a world-class surgeon, not a time to be dallying with women. He suspected that this was just a passing infatuation, and warned Dr. Mike that if he persisted in marrying this classless girl, from the other side of the tracks, he could expect no further help from him in furthering his career. What was Dr. Mike to do? Was he very sure he wanted this girl, whom he had limited knowledge about, for his wife? Was he sure his attraction wasn't just pity. Was she worth giving up his potential career as a surgeon for? After much soul-searching, he decided to take a chance on her, even though she wasn't sure it was a good idea. However, his enthusiastic marriage proposal won her over. His idea is that he will change careers to become a lowly GP. In the future, instead of following his father's advice to remain aloof from his patients, he vows to become their friend as well as doctor, treating the whole person, instead of just their immediate medical problem. Taffy, as he calls his wife, because she used to work in a candy store, finds an ideal building for his office, and soon busies herself learning to be his secretary, greeter, and nurse.

That's the gist of the film. Gloria DeHaven has a secondary role as Dr. Mike's rebellious younger sister, who has moved to Greenwich Village to escape her overbearing father. Unfortunately, she gets into an affair with a married man, who impregnates her, then abandons her. She's afraid to tell her father or Dr. Mike. Eventually, she has a botched abortion, and dies. This tragedy brings father and son back closer to each other.

The story of Dr. Mike and Taffy much reminds me of the more recent story of of Prince Harry and his surprise wife, in Megan: a biracial American : hardly what the British royals were hoping for. It also reminds me of my own story. I had a doctorate in biology when I chanced upon a girl from quite a different culture: a member of an impoverished family, who was afraid of marrying within her own culture. She soon came to trust me as a potential husband. She was pretty, and had a good personality, and wanted to move to the US. So, I decided to take a chance. In the US, she took classes to qualify as a surgical tech. She soon became a favorite of the surgeons for her attention to detail, work ethic, and pleasant personality. Yes, my big gamble has worked out great!

Before "soaps," there were a few very good MD movies

[SimonJack · 9/10 · 2 June 2013]

Very few films were made before the 1970s with doctors and medicine as the main subjects. Hollywood had made the jump to sound movies in 1929, but the medical profession wasn't much in the public's eye – at least not in the realm of entertainment. Two films in the 1930s were mainly about doctors and medicine – "One Man's Journey," in 1933, and "Magnificent Obsession," in 1935. Both films had major stars of the time and were successes, but their plots were very serious. Film historians have said that Hollywood thought the public was too wary of somber subjects. People living through the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and World War II needed more light-hearted entertainment. Having fun helped take their minds off their troubles for a while. So, comedy, romance, mystery and musicals best fit the bill for the film industry at the time. But, with the end of WW II, movie interests began to expand.

One of the very first films focused on doctors and medicine was this 1949 MGM movie, "The Doctor and the Girl." It may have piqued the interest in other quarters for more such stories. A British film, "White Corridors," came out in 1951, and in 1954, a remake of "Magnificent Obsession" scored another box office hit. Interest in medical heroes and plots continued to grow. A 1961 movie, "The Young Doctors," had a huge cast. That same year, the first popular daytime TV medical drama (aka, soap opera) aired. "Dr. Kildare" ran through 1966. In 1962, "General Hospital" premiered. In 2013, the Guinness Book of World Records lists it as the longest-running American soap, and it's still going strong. Only two other TV series have gone longer, but both are now off the air. By the 1970s, the medical field began to emerge as a major sub-genre for films and TV programs. Shows ranged from drama to comedy, romance to crime and mystery, war to sci-fi, and even horror scripts.

With new TV programs and films about doctors and medicine today, the very earliest movies still stand out for their excellent stories and performances by top casts. "The Doctor and the Girl" is such a film. The plot may seem to be so familiar today, but it wasn't at the time. Indeed, it was a leader in showing conflict between "high brow" medicine and that practiced for common folks. The performances by the stars are outstanding – Glenn Ford, Janet Leigh, Charles Coburn, Gloria De Haven, Bruce Bennett, and Basil Ruysdael. This is a movie worthy of any film library.

lesser known G. Ford film

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 14 July 2019]

Such big names in this one... Glenn Ford had just made the awesome GILDA a couple years back... Charles Coburn was a character in so many old, mostly black and white films. although Gentlemen Prefer Blonds WAS in color. Janet Leigh, of course, will go on to make Psycho ten years later. and little ol Nancy Davis Reagan will be Mrs. President Reagan. Ford is the newly accomplished Doctor Corday. He runs into all kinds of serious issues, with patients at his hospital, as well as his own father, the older Doctor Corday ( Coburn). Will his good wishes for a patient interfere with his life at home? and will his dis-approving family let him live life his own way? it's like an episode of General Hospital, before there was such a thing. lessons about bedside manner and doctor skills. some pretty big issues about things that were just beginning to be discussed, towards the end of the film production code. Directed by Curtis Bernhardt, who also did Possessed (J. Crawford) and Stolen Life (B. Davis). He certainly worked with the greats. This one is just pretty okay. can't give it very high marks.

Just what the Doctor ordered.

[MartynGryphon · 10/10 · 8 July 2023]

Great little bittersweet drama from 1949 that tells the story of a man's rite of passage from becoming a doctor to finding out what being a doctor actually means whilst finding love along the way.

Glenn Ford plays Michael Corday the son of a famous surgeon (Charles Coburn), who returns home from Harvard with his own medical diploma in hand, eager to start his own journey as a physician. He is very much his fathers son, and his dad gives him some advice about not becoming emotionally involved with the issues of his patients and to treat his job as nothing more than a production line.

Michael begins his new role as an intern at Bellevue and soon earns the disdain of his colleagues and managers with his emotionless and seemingly uncaring attitude towards his patients, some of whom have some very serious and life changing ailments.

Things take a turn when he meets Evelyn, (Janet Leigh) a patient with a lung ailment and the prognosis is not good. Michael takes a liking to this girl and the two form a friendship which he tries to keep strictly plutonic. However, when a child he is operating on dies from haemorrhaging, he is tasked with breaking the news to the distraught and inconsolable parents, an experience that affects him deeply and makes him realise that whilst medicine may just be a job to him, the decisions he makes will have a profound effect on the lives of others.

Desperate to ensure that Evelyn doesn't meet a similar fate, he uses his position to pull some strings to ensure that his family friend and the best doctor he knows performs her surgery, which he watches anxiously.

The surgery is a success and she is expected to make a full recovery. However, he can no longer hide his feelings for her and the plutonic relationship with Evelyn has now blossomed into true love for both parties.

Michael's overbearing father, desperate for his son to forget her and concentrate on his career, arranges her discharge without telling Michael, who only finds out when he goes to visit her and another patient is in her bed.

Michael confronts his father and gets Evelyn's address and when they are reunited, he proposes marriage, which at first she is reluctant to accept, knowing the trouble it will cause with his father and also the damage it may do to his promising career, but her love for him is so strong that she soon agrees.

His father cuts him off and even refuses to meet his new bride. But his sisters played by Gloria DeHaven and future First Lady Nancy Reagan (Davis), as well as his brother in Law, (Warner Anderson), all embrace their new relative and fully support Michael's decision to go it alone knowing how overbearing their father can be.

Michael and Evelyn convert their small apartment into a local medical practice with Evelyn as the nurse and despite his new practice being on the wrong side of the tracks and nowhere near even close to being financially rewarding. He makes a name in the local community as a kind and caring GP.

Sadly, a family tragedy makes all involved re-evaluate their positions, Michael's father relents and asks Michael and Evelyn to move in with him, so he can repair their relationship, be more accepting and appreciative of his daughter in law and also get Michael's career as a world class surgeon back on track. They agree, but when Michael and his father are reviewing his active patients case notes, ready to hand over to the a possible replacement doctor, and seeing Michael's knowledge, concern and care for each and every one of his 'flock', it is the father that comes to his own epiphany that Michael is indeed already where he is destined to be and needs to stay there.

Coburn plays to type as the interfering patriarch, Ford gets to do something a little different than we'd seen him do before and we're treated to a wonderful early performance from Leigh whose character, so pivotal to the path Michael will take, would have been too much of an undertaking for a lesser talented young actress, yet she absolutely shines here running a gamut of emotions, from the worry about the illness from which she is suffering when we are first introduced to her, to the conflict she feels about potentially destroying Michael's relationship with his family at the benefit of her own relationship.

This is really a great movie, but it might be worthwhile have some tissues handy at some of the more emotional parts.

Enjoy!

A rare and warning picture about careerist medicine men who think that their patients are just cold numbers !!

[elo-equipamentos · 8/10 · 23 September 2020]

Somehow this picture reminds me "The Citadel" played by Robert Donat, here Glenn Ford recently formed Doctor Michael Corday on Harvard starts under the his father's wings and linkages to be a successful doctor on New York, Corday has advises by his possessive father that all patients is just a cold number, he must doesn't involved with them in any way, just keeping ahead to reach at the top through his connections, when he meets the earnest and proud Dr. Norton (Bruce Bennett) his director at hospital, Norton realizes that Dr. Corday actually is a careerist and try by any means invites Norton for the closest circle around his influential father to get a promotion, however Norton who is a hardened Doctor denied such odd offer, later Dr. Corday after has dealt with harsh way a young girl Evelyn (Janet Leigh) with a critical illness at lungs and she needs a hard surgery, he felt that should apologize to her, then grows up an affective feelings to the poor girl, Corday perceiving that Evelyn has a dismal chance to survives on surgery, then he asking for his father's closest mate Dr. Francis a very special favor, takes over the trick surgery, the skillful Doctor made a fine job, saving the girl, knowing all about his father try out sets apart the couple, Dr. Corday ends up marry with Evelyn and sets up a humble clinic to assist poor custumers at 3th avenue, "The Doctor and the girl" takes a valuable message for those medicine men who pursue a fancy career driven their efforts to upper class only, blinding yours eyes to least privileged people awesome !!

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8