BETWEEN TWO WOMEN
US, 1945, 83 minutes. Black and white.
Van Johnson, Lionel Barrymore, Gloria de Haven, Keenan Wynn, Keye Luke, Alma Kruger, Walter Kingsford, Marie Blake, Marilyn Maxwell.
Directed by Willis Goldbeck.
Between Two Women is the fourth Doctor Gillespie film in which Van Johnson appeared as Doctor Randall Adams. He took the place of Lew Ayres as Doctor Kildaire in the series when Ayres became a conscientious objector in World War Two and Hollywood did not hire him.
Van Johnson is a genial presence. Marilyn Maxwell continues her role as his wealthy girlfriend. Lionel Barrymore continues as Doctor Gillespie as do a number of the supporting cast including Marie Blake (Jeanette Mac Donald’s sister) as Sally the receptionist.
The film is very much a focus on the life in the hospital, the focus on those who are ill. This time it is Gloria de Haven as a singer-dancer at a fashionable hotel who needs psychological treatment. The film actually spends a lot of time discussing psychoanalysis, the conscious and the subconscious. The telephonist, Sally, also suffers from kidney disease but is stoic and won’t reveal her pain until the last moment. She is a jovial character who appeared in many of the films and relates very well to the staff.
The film combines romance with the attentiveness of Doctor Adams and his analyses, the taunts of Doctor Gillespie, his bedside manner. While the film was released in 1945, there is still great appeal for the selling of war bonds – with Keenan Wynn as a master of ceremonies offering wealthy businessmen the opportunity to buy bonds for a kiss from the girls at the hotel.
The film was directed by Willis Goldbeck, who wrote most of the Doctor Gillespie films and directed four of them.
1. The popularity of the Doctor Kildaire, Doctor Gillespie, Doctor Adams series in the 1940s? The popularity of medical films – and the later television series and the popularity of hospital dramas?
2. MGM production, the black and white photography, the musical score? The hospital, the hotel, the musical routines?
3. Doctor Gillespie, Lionel Barrymore in his wheelchair, crusty old doctor, with patients, with the staff, continually challenging? His place in the hospital, visiting the patients, going to meetings? His manner? The backbone of the series?
4. Van Johnson as Red Adams, his presence, manner, everybody liking him, Sally and her being in love with him? His relationship with Ruth, her wealth, his resisting her advances and proposals? Doctor Gillespie and Ruth engineering him going to the hotel? The auction of the kisses? Ruth making him kiss her in public? His interest in Edna, treatment, going to the staff to try to work out what was wrong, Ruth and her discussions with the women and giving him the key? The story of Sylvia, her drinking, her malnutrition and death, Edna blaming herself? Doctor Adams and his explanations of the conscious and unconscious, of psychoanalysis? Her recovery?
5. Ruth, wealth, liking Red, the kisses, her performance and leaving him, saying goodbye, helping him out? Overcoming his resistance?
6. The medical focus, psychological illness, physical illness, Doctor Adams and the surgery, the post-operation crisis?
7. The supporting cast as members of the hospital, Doctor Lee, Nurse Byrd, Doctor Carew? Their contribution to the life of the hospital?
8. An enjoyable film – and the precursor of so many television series of the future?
