Goldwyn prestige at its stateliest, with John Ford direction and a Sidney Howard screenplay from a famous Sinclair Lewis novel. It means to be a serious look at the corrupting influences on the medical profession--interestingly, it tells a story not unlike, and with the same ending as, Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Allegro." It's hardly exciting, however, and the deliberate pacing makes one impatient for more to happen, faster. You're also asked to believe a fortyish Ronald Colman is a twentyish medical student, that he has an impeccable British accent though he's solid American stock, and that he and Helen Hayes would meet cute and fall in love cute, in a few hours. (She simpers a lot, and though she's excellent a year later in "A Farewell to Arms," here she's mostly annoying.) Ford's work is a little over-obvious here--note that close-up of the poisoned cigarette, killing any forward plotting for the next half-hour. Compensations include Myrna Loy, playing an honest and appealing upper-class lady at a time when studios were mainly casting her in Oriental-floozie roles, and a rare portrayal of an African-American doctor who's smarter and more dignified than anyone else among the dramatis personae. The production design's nice, too. If only there were more drama, and if we believed it more thoroughly.
Review of Arrowsmith
