IMDb RATING
6.4/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
After the killing of her husband by friendly fire during a police raid, Dr. Carole Nelson tries to find gangster Joe Gurney to clear her name with the medical board.After the killing of her husband by friendly fire during a police raid, Dr. Carole Nelson tries to find gangster Joe Gurney to clear her name with the medical board.After the killing of her husband by friendly fire during a police raid, Dr. Carole Nelson tries to find gangster Joe Gurney to clear her name with the medical board.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaHumphrey Bogart was given top billing, in part, to further humiliate Kay Francis, whose $200,000 annual salary and declining popularity had become a sore spot for Warner boss Jack L. Warner. Aware of the motives, Bogie was unhappy that he was being used as a pawn in order to humiliate Francis in front of the public that had once admired her. After years of struggling as a relatively-unknown actor in B-films, he considered achieving his second top billing this way to be more salt in the wound. (He had been top billed in Black Legion two years earlier.)
- GoofsThe first time Carole is taken to the hideout, she's blindfolded. But when she returns on her own, nobody asks how she found her way there.
- Quotes
Bill Stevens: What you want is a ghost writer.
Joe Gurney: Nah no mystery stuff, just plain facts.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Hollywood and the Stars: The Man Called Bogart (1963)
- SoundtracksJezebel
(1938) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Played when Joe receives the telephone call before the operation
Featured review
Kay Francis as a doctor comes up against gangster Bogie
In an effort to elevate Humphrey Bogart's star and get rid of Kay Francis, Warners remade Dr. Socrates, giving the good doctor a sex change and making him Kay Francis instead. However, Bogart gets top billing and Francis' role was reduced. It didn't work; Francis kept plodding along until the end of her contract. Also, I still felt she came across as the star in this.
Francis plays a doctor whose husband starts picking up easy money repairing the wounds of gangsters and not reporting on their illegal activities. Eventually, he is killed in a raid, and the police are convinced that Francis was in on it with her husband. Unless she can prove her innocence, she's going to lose her medical license. When she gets a lead on the gang's whereabouts, she sets up shop in the same town.
It's really hard to believe this movie came out in 1939 - it has the look and feel of something done about five years earlier. Bogart is good as a cocky and violent criminal who trusts no one and is too fast with a gun. Stardom is just ahead for the actor, as well as lots less of films like this.
Francis was past the magic age of 30 by this time, and her big star, big film days were behind her. She would soon fall to second leads and eventually move over to Monogram for several films, and, after a couple of early TV appearances, would retire. Everything about Francis embodies the strong '30s career woman, and it's hard to picture her out of the era. She does a great job in this as a determined, classy woman who has to use her wits to get out of a bad situation. An eminently watchable actress.
Worth seeing for Francis and Bogart just before his great career takes off.
Francis plays a doctor whose husband starts picking up easy money repairing the wounds of gangsters and not reporting on their illegal activities. Eventually, he is killed in a raid, and the police are convinced that Francis was in on it with her husband. Unless she can prove her innocence, she's going to lose her medical license. When she gets a lead on the gang's whereabouts, she sets up shop in the same town.
It's really hard to believe this movie came out in 1939 - it has the look and feel of something done about five years earlier. Bogart is good as a cocky and violent criminal who trusts no one and is too fast with a gun. Stardom is just ahead for the actor, as well as lots less of films like this.
Francis was past the magic age of 30 by this time, and her big star, big film days were behind her. She would soon fall to second leads and eventually move over to Monogram for several films, and, after a couple of early TV appearances, would retire. Everything about Francis embodies the strong '30s career woman, and it's hard to picture her out of the era. She does a great job in this as a determined, classy woman who has to use her wits to get out of a bad situation. An eminently watchable actress.
Worth seeing for Francis and Bogart just before his great career takes off.
helpful•311
- blanche-2
- Jun 26, 2006
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 7 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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