Such a frustrating disappointment

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The good -- a fine performance by Clark Gable. I wasn't sure Gable would be convincing as a dedicated medical doctor, but his acting here was a pleasant surprise.The bad -- this is not the film's fault, but the print shown on TCM that I watched was quite poor.The ugly -- among all the talk of hard work and dedication, most of the doctors in the film acted like pathetic children.Overall, this was an interesting film (interesting does not equal good). Several of the sets were interesting in that they made the hospital look like the jewel of modernity, although patient rooms were "bare". Another plus here is the performance of Jean Hersholt ("grandfather" in "Heidi") as the wise old doctor and mentor to Gable.However, this film would make you wonder if anyone lived through a hospital visit back in the 1930s! In terms of acting, the biggest surprise...and for the negative...was that of Otto Kruger. I liked Kruger very much in later films, but here he was TERRIBLE! The female lead here was Myrna Loy, and she does just fine...nothing special...just good...although like another film I watched her in a few days ago, here she is not a very likable person.Should you watch this film. Yes, if you are a fan of Gables. Or if you are interested one perspective on medicine in the 1930s. Otherwise, I'd pass it by.Otto Kruger as Dr. Levine

After watching this I first thought that whoever edited this was just really bad. After reading about this films production history I understood why it ended up like this.The basic story of this one is that a dedicated young doctor is about to be married to a wealthy socialite girl but she's tired of him putting the hospital before her. After this argument he ends up in a sleeping area for docs and kisses a nurse in training. We go through a few patients dying and such and then the nurse herself ends up dying on the table and he and his future fiancé break up. No I'm not laving anything out cause that's pretty much what this film has in it.THe biggest problem this film has is the editing is just terrible...but....it's not the editors fault. The crux of this film involves the student nurse and the doctor played by Clark Gable. At the end of the film when she dies, we don't know what's happened. You will literally be guessing what happened. After this his fiancé leaves him and thats it. I decided to look around online and see if I was losing my mind. Well, turns out the hays code didn't like the mentioning of an "abortion" so that had to be cut out...along with was quite a few other bits to appease them. Abortion you say? Yup. Turns out the mystery in the film is the girl has an affair with the engaged doctor and she gets pregnant, has a back alley abortion where she develops and infection/blood clot and dies. Don't worry, this will only help with you trying to figure this one out. After knowing this you'll see what the Hays Code did to this "average" film.I think if your interested in watching this you'd better be a Gable or Loy fan cause other than that, it's not really gonna impress you or anyone to much.

This movie is best known in film history as the inspiration for the Three Stooges' comedy short "Men in Black", although there is really no comparison between the two. This is a well-paced little hospital drama made right before the production code began to be enforced. Dr. George Forrest (Clark Gable) is an intern at a busy hospital and Laura Hudson (Myrna Loy) is his socialite fiancée. Forrest wants to study under Dr. Hochberg (Jean Hersholt) when his time is up as an intern, but it means only twenty dollars a week and long indefinite hours. Laura wants her fiancée to go into private practice so that they can have a normal life together after their marriage. Laura may be a bit of a spoiled brat, but she knows it, so it makes her more likable. Forrest is torn between wanting to please Laura and wanting the great chance to work with Hochberg. A fight between the couple one night sets up the scene for a scandal that has the opportunity to derail both Forrest's career and personal life. That is pretty much the crux of the movie.What keeps it interesting is the pacing and the performances. I found it to be the most believable of the Gable/Loy pairings I've seen. Plus, unlike so many MGM dramas of the 30's, there is no unreasonable bad guy in sight - only the fight to advance medicine. Another matter of interest is the art deco interior design of the hospital. For example, there is a staircase in the main lobby of the hospital that is out of this world.

this is one of the few gable movies that i like. i was surprised by gable's acting, it was so unlike his macho man roles. his humanity came out in this performance. loy was a little irritating to me, which is rare, i so love her movies with William Powell. she seemed like a spoiled rich girl, unaware and uncaring of the plights of the sick and ailing, so unlike her Nora Charles rich girl. in it's own way it is a forerunner of er, not quite so fast-paced, but intense all the same. i was a little confused about the ailing nurse, it wasn't clear to me whether she had an abortion or if she had tried to commit suicide. perhaps some parts had been cut out that better explained it, although i watched it on tcm, they usually show movies in their entirety. i did have to chuckle at loy's serious line about "humanity", and her look away. it seemed a little overdone. a very good movie, ahead of it's time.