DR SOCRATES

US, 1935, 70 minutes, Black and white.
Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Barton Mac Lane.
Directed by William Dieterle.

Dr Socrates is a Paul Muni star vehicle. Muni had emerged at Warner Brothers as a star with I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang and was about to make his mark with a number of biographies - Louis Pasteur, Emile Zola, Juarez. He was to win an Oscar for his work as Louis Pasteur.

This is a brief gangster thriller with Muni as a sympathetic doctor caught up with gangsters and having to treat them. There is quite some action in the small running time - and the film was remade some years later as a vehicle for Kay Francis, King of the Underworld. Competent, brief gangster thriller of its time.

1. The popularity of gangster thrillers during the '30s? The focus on gangsters, the encounters with ordinary people like doctors and people in a small town community? Impact then? Now?

2. Warner Bros. production values, stars, black and white photography, action sequences, special effects? Editing and pace? Score?

3. The title - and the ironic and humorous nickname for the doctor? His work? Dedication? Opinions? His concern about learning, his reading Plato.- hence the nickname? The focus on the role of the doctor and the medical ethical questions?

4. The situation in the town, the doctor and his practice, the older doctor and his rivalry? The lack of popularity of the doctor in the town? His being caught up in the situation by the gangsters, the encounter with Lee? The dangers, the medical profession, the reactions of the town, the suspicions of the police? Lee and her being taken, his response? His reaction to Red Bastian? The build-up to the confrontation - the police, the townspeople, the gangsters, Lee, his use of the medicines to control the gangsters? His vindication?

5. Lee and her travels, coning into the town, association with the gangsters, her being wounded, suspicions? The doctor tending her? Being taken by Red Bastian? The use of her wits? The escape and the reconciliation?

6. Red Bastian as a presumptuous gangster, henchmen? The robbery, the shooting of-Lee and their taking her along after picking her up on the road? The need for the doctor? The swagger? The blindfold etc.? The big talk? The timing of the attack by the doctor, the use of the medicine to incapacitate them? The shooting? Bastian's death?

7. The townspeople and their reaction to the doctor, suspicion and dislike, the doctor rivalries? The people supporting him in the town especially the wealthy man with his hypochondriac daughter? The doctor's smooth-talking technique-to get the daughter back into life with good result? The police?

8. The action sequences - the robbery, the shootings, Lee being shot? The doctor's being taken to the hideout? His plan for the siege, incapacitating the gangsters, the shoot-out and the taking of the house?

9. The popularity of this kind of action film - in every decade?