This is such a curious and astonishing film that it's hard to decide whether it's a classic gem or a bungled effort to deliver a number of political messages through the motion picture format.
Directed and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (adapted from a play by Curt Goetz), the film features the university doctor Prof. Noah Praetorius (played by the eternally suave and smooth Cary Grant), a mysterious, mischievous and mystical doctor who not only cures his patients through unorthodox means (which would perhaps be called Human-Centered New Age Approach in 2006) but apparently even brings them back from the dead!
This of course does not sit well by his insanely jealous colleague Professor Elwell who tries to debunk Praetorius's credentials throughout the movie and thus provides the classic Protagonist-Antagonist dramatic tension line. But that's only one of the plot lines running from one end of this multi-tasking plot to the other.
The other plot line is the interaction of Dr. Praetorius with Deborah Higgins (Jeanne Crain), a student auditing his anatomy class, who later on becomes his wife. Higgins becomes pregnant from a lover who is no longer with her. Thus she is scared to death that her father will have a hard attack and die the minute he hears the bad news (this is the 50s). So Praetorius changes his story and tells her that a mistake was made during the pregnancy test.
But Praetorius is not the only character in this movie who is not what he or she seems to be on the surface. Deborah's father Arthur (played by Sidney Blackmer), for example, who is a world-traveled man of far-flung ambitions turns out to be a total failure in worldly terms, living hand to mouth on his brother John's farm.
Another most memorable character is Mr. Shunderson (Finlay Currie), a white-haired and silent elderly man who shadows Praetorius as his side-kick and servant wherever they go. He is like Praetorius's shadow and Professor Elwell is pretty sure he is a screen hiding something unsavory in Praetorius's past.
At every opportunity throughout the film we are treated to a lecture by Praetorius on how misdirected the modern science has become by forgetting the human essence of medicine and instead focusing on methods, measurements and machines. His symbolic act of pressing a candy into the palm of everyone he meets is a visual reminder of the role of kindness, human touch and plain sweetness play in his approach to curing others. He is the kind of handsome and optimistic doctor that most patients fall in love with, some, like Higgins, literally.
After Praetorius and Higgins marry, she discovers that she is carrying a child that predates their marriage. So did Praetorius marry her out of love or pity? Is he using marriage as yet another tool to help one of his patients Higgins wants to know. Praetorius assures her that it is genuine love and not a sense of charity which drove him to the ir marriage... but as viewers we are not totally convinced.
The last long sequence of the movie (Act Three) is devoted to the trial of Praetorius by a university committee to see if the rumors are true and if he has violated any academic rules by hiding any sordid details of his past. The discipline committee hearing takes place while the university orchestra is waiting in the jam-packed concert hall for Praetorius to show up at the podium and pick up his baton. Yes -- the multi talented Praetorius happens to be the conductor of the university's symphony orchestra as well.
The hearing comes to a conclusion with Shunderson showing up in person and spoiling Prof. Rodney Elwell's character assassination by telling his story. It turns out he has spent 15 years in jail for being falsely accused of killing his best friend who, while he was in prison, had a good time with Shunderson's girlfriend.
So when Shunderson meets his old friend at a restaurant after he get s out of jail, he really kills him thinking he has already paid his dues for that specific crime. But the state prosecutor sentences him to death by hanging.
After going to the gallows and dying at the end of a rope, Shunderson's corpse is donated by the hangman to a young Praetorius who was a medical student back then and dating the hangman's daughter. Shunderson's body is given to him to further his anatomy studies by experimenting on the corpse. Instead, Shunderson is revived by Praetorius miraculously and since then the two never went anywhere without one another.
At that scene we finally understand the tremendous devotion of Shunderson to Praetorius yet we are still a bit puzzled by the true identity of Praetorius. Who is this man who enjoys a Jesus-like power to bring the dead back to life and yet shrugs it away in extreme modesty whenever his exploits are mentioned?
In the very last scene, we watch an over-the-top Shunderson conducting a Brahms sy mphony to its triumphant conclusion while grinning ear to ear to Deborah who is marveling him from the very first row sitting right next to her father.
An unusual film with several creative but somewhat unconnected subplots and frequent monologues on serious topics. Yet you end up watching it with interest partly due to Cary Grant's flawless performance in an odd role and partly just out of sheer curiosity to see where will all this lead.
A 7 out of 10 for its courage to take on some heavy duty topics back in 1951. You'll even find a mini-lecture tucked away there against the government policy of paying the American farmers for not cultivating certain crops. Such lecturing would not fly today but back in 1951 it obviously did.
Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative CopyWriter, Editor, an exper ienced and award-winning Senior Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases, movie reviews and hi-tech documentation. He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 corporations since 1999. He is the Editor of PRIVATE TUTOR FOR SAT MATH SUCCESS web site http://www.privatetutor.us
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Author:: Ugur Akinci
Keywords:: Hollywood,Movies,movie plots,Films,ugur akinci,Writer,Editor,People Will Talk,Joseph L. Mankiewicz
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