Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

bkoganbing Although Max Brand's character of Dr. James Kildare first appeared over at Paramount's Interns Can't Take Money with Joel McCrea, the first of the classic Dr. Kildare movies was Young Dr. Kildare with Lew Ayres as the idealistic young intern. The series was done over at MGM and that most expensive of all studios gave a polished touch to even a series of B pictures.Young Dr. Kildare sets the series up with Lew Ayres newly graduated from medical school deciding to intern at Blair General Hospital in New York instead of starting practice over in the small Connecticut town with his parents Samuel S. Hinds and Emma Dunn. While there he comes to the attention of renowned doctor Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Leonard Gillespie who spends the whole film putting him through some paces as he decides whether this young man can cut it as his new assistant.Although Ayres's main challenge with purportedly mentally ill rich girl Jo Ann Sayers is not terribly convincing in its simplistic approach to her psychiatric problems which resulted in a suicide attempt the sincere playing of Ayres, Barrymore, and the rest cover a multitude of script holes. Walter Kingsford also makes his debut in the series as the officious hospital president Dr. Carew. Although a pattern is set with the Carew character here who realizes he's just a bureaucrat with an MD and he defers to Barrymore on medical questions.The Kildare series got a decent if not outstanding debut with Young Dr. Kildare.

MartinHafer The fact that they made so many Dr. Kildare films in the 30s and 40s is more a testament to the acting of Lew Ayers and Lionel Barrymore than to the quality of the writing for this film. In so many ways, it seems like just another B-movie but somehow it managed to generate enough interest to create a series of films.Interestingly, not all of the Kildare films featured Lew Ayers in the lead, as after 1942, the series continued with Lionel Barrymore and other young doctors. Sadly, this is apparently because the public grew to hate Ayers because of his status as a conscientious objector during WWII. However, this is really unfair as when drafted, Ayers DID serve with distinction on the front lines--as a corpsman and chaplain's aid where he risked his life but was unwilling to kill. This abhorrence of violence stemmed from his role in the greatest anti-war film of all-time, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Fortunately for Ayers, a few years after the war, his public image changed and he gained acceptance--though his career never replicated the heights of his Dr. Kildare years.Now the fact that Barrymore made fifteen films in the series is very interesting, as his character was diagnosed with terminal cancer in this first film! According to the brilliant Kildare's opinion, Barrymore (as 'Dr. Gillespie') SHOULD have died within the year! Perhaps Kildare came up with some miracle cure in some subsequent film to explain this discrepancy.This is the first film in the series. Because of that, much of the film is spent establishing who the character is, creating a back story and installing him in his new job as an intern at a big New York hospital. I liked this part of the film a lot and liked the characters.However, oddly, the actual "big cases" they created for this first film were really limp. The first was a small one that made absolutely no sense--none. While assigned to ambulance duty, a patient dies and the guy turns out to be an important politician. Kildare is accused of incompetence but the guy died because the ambulance assistant (Nat Pendleton) ignored Kildare's instructions. Why Kildare hid this from the investigating board is not only inexplicable but highly unprofessional. The second is a case involving an attempted suicide by a rich heiress. Despite having a prominent psychiatrist assigned to the case (Monty Woolley in a very tiny role), Kildare insists he knows more than ANYONE at the hospital and is insubordinate. Then, when he's suspended, he goes into action like a Charlie Chan-type character. None of this made any sense, either, and Kildare came off as a know-it-all. Not an auspicious beginning to the series! Still, despite the film's many deficiencies, it is watchable. In many ways, the relationship between Gillespie and Kildare is reminiscent of the TV series "The Paper Chase".By the way, the receptionist in the film is played by a young Blossom Rock--the same actress who played 'Grandmama' on "The Addams Family" TV show. Interestingly, she was Jeanette MacDonald's less famous sister.

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.

sol1218 (There are Spoilers) Just graduating from medical school young Doctor James or Jimmy Kildare, Lew Ayres, comes back to his roots in the little sleepy town of Dartford Connecticut to open up a practice with his old man Dr. Stephen Kildare, Samuel H. Hinds.It doesn't take long for Jimmy to leave Dartford and his parents Mr. & Mrs. Kildare, played by Emma Dunn, as well as his long suffering girlfriend Alice (Lynn Carver), who's been waiting for him all this time, for the big city's, NYC, Balir General Hospital. Dr. Kildare want's to make his mark as a diagnostician and the best place is Blair where the world renowned Dr. Leonard , or Lenny, Gillespie, Lionel Barymore, is in charge not only of the diagnosis but the surgery department as well.Things don't go as well as Jimmy expected in him being chewed out by Dr. Gillespie the first day he started his residency at Blair in front of all his fellow interns. In no time at all Dr. Kildare makes a name for himself in being able to diagnose on the spot illnesses and cure them with almost miraculous medical powers. This makes the grumpy Dr. Gillespie take notice of the young Doctor Jimmy Kildare even though he acts like he's not at all that impressed with Jimmy's almost unearthly healing skills.Dr. Kildare being the morally-minded person that he is get's himself in hot water later in the movie by after first rescuing heiress Barbara Chanler, Jo Ann Sayers, he refuses to reveal the reason for her attempted suicide. Barbara breaking up with her fiancée Jack Hamilton, Truman Bradley,over him not taking her to the Blue Sawn nightclub ended up with horse owner Albert Foster, Leonard Penn, who got her juiced, inebriated, and left her almost dead drunk in one of the clubs private gambling rooms. Staggering out semi conscious into the street Barbara ended up in this Bowery flophouse where she tried to kill herself by turning on the gas oven in her room without lighting it. It seems that Barbara even though the movie doesn't spell it out, it leaves it to the viewers imagination, felt that Foster took advantage of her while she was drunk. The shock of her fiancée Jack finding out that she's isn't a virgin on their wedding night was just too much for Barbara to take and thus decided, in what later turned out to be for the wrong reason, to take her own life.Being a doctor Jimmy Kildare knew that Barbara, after examining her, was not at all the "damaged goods" that she thought she was. It was Dr. Jimmy Kildare's sweet and caring, as well as private, doctor patient relationship that put Barbara off from killing herself again. This in the end cured Barbara of the fears she had in what Foster did, which in fact he didn't, to her. In keeping the truth about Barbara from his superior the administrator of Blair General Dr. P Walter Carew, Walter Kingsford, almost got Jimmy kicked out of the place.It turned that Dr. Lenny Gillespie came to the young and besieged, on all sides, Dr. Kildare's rescue by offering the startled young man a chance to be his assistant which he, at first thinking that the old guy was going to chew him out, snapped up without a moments hesitation. The future now looked bright for Young Doctor Kildare but at the same time looked very ominous for old man Gillespie in that he's suffering for a bad case of melanoma, skin cancer, and he knew his days were numbered. It's in the short time that he had left Dr. Gillespie planned to teach his young potage, Jimmy Kildare, all he knows about medicine before the final curtain comes down on him.P.S Amazingly the movie had Dr. Kildare examine Dr. Gillespie on his condition, melanoma, and he predicted that Ol'Lenny still had some ten years of life left in his gas-tank. Gillespie putting Dr. Kildare down on how ridicules his prognosis is it in fact turned out to be right on target! Old and feisty Dr.Gillespie would out last young Doctor Kildare, or actor Lew Ayres who played him, in the Doctor Kildare series by some five years! That's exactly tens years since Dr. Kildare diagnosed the old man telling him that he'll overcome his cancerous condition. In fact after the Doctor Kildare movies came to an end in 1947 Dr. Gillespie, with his portage Dr. Kildare no longer around, was still very much alive and as healthy as he was when the series first started back in 1938!