***SPOILERS*** One of actor Errol Fynn's best as well as most underrated films as Boston Doctor Newell Paige who after being drummed out of the medical profession for a crime or blotched operation that he didn't commit put his life on the line in far off Boom Mountain Montana to develop a vaccine for the deadly Spotted Fever! It was the head of surgery Dr. Endicott, Henry O'Neill, who being heavily involved his his stock transactions that caused Dr. Paige to take it upon himself to operated on patient Mrs. Dexter, Spring Byington,because Dr. Endicott couldn't make it to the operating room on time. With Dr. Paige just about to successfully complete the operation Dr. Endicott barged into the operating room and with his stocks instead of his patient's health in mind ended up killing her by cutting her artery a bit too short that caused Mrs. Dexter to bleed to death!
In covering up for Dr. Endicott's mistake Dr, Paige was forced to resign his job and look for work as either a hot dog and soda vendor at Fenway Park or or dock worker at the Boston waterfront. This at the height, 1936, or the Great Depression! What really shook Dr. Paige up more then him being blamed for Mrs. Dexter's death is that her daughter Phyllis, Anita Louise, hated him like poison for her mom's death.It was Phyllis whom Paige at first met him in Paige being introduced by his good friend Nurse Frances Ogilive, Margaret Lindsey, as Mr. Walker. It didn't take long for a starry eyed Phyllis in seeing what a hunk of a man Paige, or in her case Walker, was that she in no time at all fell madly in love with the handsome ex-doctor! That's until Phyllis found out his real identity ,the man who killed her mom, and dropped him like a hot potato!
With his life and professional career in the outhouse all Paige could think of in how to redeem himself from the mess he now finds himself in. It's by Paige seeing religious radio personality Reverend Dean Hardcort, Cedric Hardwicke, that his faith is restored in the human race. That's in him doing the right thing is the road to his both freedom and redemption which the crippled and at one time suicidal Reverand discovered in his most darkest and depressing moments! This lead to a revitalized and almost angelic like Newell Paige to travel to Montana to help his good friend doctor and bacteriologist John Stafford, Walter Able, find a cure for the dreaded Spotted Fever that just about wiped out the entire state's population!
Going nowhere with his research in discovering a cure and with people dying of Spotted Fever all around him Paige in an act of extreme self sacrifice infected himself, against Dr. Stafford's strong objections, with the disease in hopes of finding a cure for it. Going in an out of consciousness with his fever, as high as 104.2 degrees, reaching dangerous levels it's non other then Dr. Endicott in far off Boston who after getting the news from Nurse Ogilvie on Paige's condition who came flying in to help and save his life. Feeling responsible for Paige's degenerating condition Dr. Endicott while desperately trying to save his life blurted out the truth, with Phyllis Dexter in attendance, that he not Paige was the one responsible for Mrs. Dexter's death!
***SPOILERS*** It was touch and go for a while but in the end Paige or now Doctor Paige fully recovered from the dose of Spotted Fever that he infected himself with. Using himself as a human guinea pig Dr. Paige did for mankind in that one supreme effort more then the entire medical profession did in something like 200 years in eradicating that deadly disease by using his own life to do it! That as well as keeping from the public, until he himself went public with it, the fact that it was Dr. Endicott who screwed up the operation on Mrs. Dexter that he, Dr. Paige, in fact nobly took the blame for!
P.S Check out 1912 Olympic hero Jim Trorpe in a cameo role in the movie as Doctor Paige's Indian guide in Montana.
In covering up for Dr. Endicott's mistake Dr, Paige was forced to resign his job and look for work as either a hot dog and soda vendor at Fenway Park or or dock worker at the Boston waterfront. This at the height, 1936, or the Great Depression! What really shook Dr. Paige up more then him being blamed for Mrs. Dexter's death is that her daughter Phyllis, Anita Louise, hated him like poison for her mom's death.It was Phyllis whom Paige at first met him in Paige being introduced by his good friend Nurse Frances Ogilive, Margaret Lindsey, as Mr. Walker. It didn't take long for a starry eyed Phyllis in seeing what a hunk of a man Paige, or in her case Walker, was that she in no time at all fell madly in love with the handsome ex-doctor! That's until Phyllis found out his real identity ,the man who killed her mom, and dropped him like a hot potato!
With his life and professional career in the outhouse all Paige could think of in how to redeem himself from the mess he now finds himself in. It's by Paige seeing religious radio personality Reverend Dean Hardcort, Cedric Hardwicke, that his faith is restored in the human race. That's in him doing the right thing is the road to his both freedom and redemption which the crippled and at one time suicidal Reverand discovered in his most darkest and depressing moments! This lead to a revitalized and almost angelic like Newell Paige to travel to Montana to help his good friend doctor and bacteriologist John Stafford, Walter Able, find a cure for the dreaded Spotted Fever that just about wiped out the entire state's population!
Going nowhere with his research in discovering a cure and with people dying of Spotted Fever all around him Paige in an act of extreme self sacrifice infected himself, against Dr. Stafford's strong objections, with the disease in hopes of finding a cure for it. Going in an out of consciousness with his fever, as high as 104.2 degrees, reaching dangerous levels it's non other then Dr. Endicott in far off Boston who after getting the news from Nurse Ogilvie on Paige's condition who came flying in to help and save his life. Feeling responsible for Paige's degenerating condition Dr. Endicott while desperately trying to save his life blurted out the truth, with Phyllis Dexter in attendance, that he not Paige was the one responsible for Mrs. Dexter's death!
***SPOILERS*** It was touch and go for a while but in the end Paige or now Doctor Paige fully recovered from the dose of Spotted Fever that he infected himself with. Using himself as a human guinea pig Dr. Paige did for mankind in that one supreme effort more then the entire medical profession did in something like 200 years in eradicating that deadly disease by using his own life to do it! That as well as keeping from the public, until he himself went public with it, the fact that it was Dr. Endicott who screwed up the operation on Mrs. Dexter that he, Dr. Paige, in fact nobly took the blame for!
P.S Check out 1912 Olympic hero Jim Trorpe in a cameo role in the movie as Doctor Paige's Indian guide in Montana.