THE CRIME OF DR HALLETT
US, 1938, 68 minutes, Black-and-white.
Ralph Bellamy, Josephine Hutchinson, William Gargan, Barbara Read, John Dusty King.
Directed by S.Sylvan Simon.
Films about doctors were popular in the 1930s. This one concern several doctors working in Sumatra, in the jungle, searching for a cure for a disease, experimenting on monkeys.
It is a star vehicle for Ralph Bellamy in the title role. He is dedicated but determined, working with a collaborator, played by William Gargan, and joined by a woman doctor, unusual for the time, leading to a discussion about women and equality and the professions. She is played by Josephine Hutchinson.
The young doctor, wealthy, educated at Harvard, arranges to come to work with Dr Hallett. Hallett is not impressed and gives him menial jobs to do. When the young doctor comes across a possibility for a cure, he defers to Dr Hallett. And, agreeing to an experiment, he is injected with the disease confident that Dr Hallett’s cure will be effective. It is not and he dies.
Dr Hallett is remorseful for his treatment of the young man and organisers a transfer of names, that the young doctor be buried under Dr Hallett’s own name – a tribute to him for his self-sacrifice and working on the cure.
However, there is a further complication when the young doctor’s widow arrives, wanting his money, causing financial problems.
Which means then that the film is about medicine, difficulties in pioneering cures, a film for women’s equality – as well as some final melodramatic complications.
DANCING AT THE VATICAN
UK, Argentina, Italy, Venezuela. 2019, 40 minutes, Colour.
Charles Sabine.
Directed by Brian Moore.
Not an expected activity! However, at the end of this moving documentary, a number of pilgrims move up to the stage of the papal audience hall, a popular Argentinian singer, Axel, playing his guitar, a spirit of joy. By this time, we have come to know who these dancers are.
The group at the papal audience had a slogan, “Hidden No More�.
Which makes us realise that, if we Had not had direct contact with someone suffering from a particular illness, a named disease, like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, we do not know much about the illness at all. Since the disease featured in this documentary is Huntington’s Disease, we realise that it does not have quite the public profile as, say, Parkinson’s, where, again, people in the public profile, like Pope John Paul II or actor, Michael Fox, are well-known.
So, this brief film serves as a deserved public recognition of those, around the world, who suffer from Huntington’s Disease. And the realisation that it is not contagious, but rather is inherited. The producer of the film is a British journalist, himself and inheritor, Charles Sabine, who had the idea of enlisting Pope Francis in the campaign for better recognition and understanding.
The focus is on a community in Venezuela, on Lake Maracaibo. We are introduced to the population of the small fishing village, quite a number of whom have the disease. For those who have not experienced it, watching the behaviour, the symptoms, a kind of physical jerkiness at times, some seeming lack of awareness of what is happening can be disturbing. In this village, the disease is not understood, people being very wary, misjudging the behaviour of those who have inherited HD.
Sabine notes that the ways of Vatican bureaucracy are slow-moving but he perseveres in writing to the officials for an audience with the Pope. And, after some months, there is an agreement, not just for a private audience but for a large gathering, Pope Francis to speak, to welcome the visitors, to meet and embrace many of them. And, so, we accompany a young boy who has been shunned by the village, bullied at school because of his family, and a 15-year-old girl from Argentina. (And there is some delight when the boy is presented with a football and a jersey by a celebrated player and Axel arrives to play a song for the girl delighted and awestruck.)
The group is sponsored by an Italian doctor, member of the Italian Senate, who brings a delegation to a session in the Senate. She also introduces the group to the Pope and there are quite a number of doctors and specialists in the papal audience.
And, to the delight of the organisers, Pope Francis actually says out loud the HD slogan, Hidden No More, in English, Italian, Spanish. No wonder, the group danced in the Vatican.
Social groups, parish groups, school classes, all could, within a short space of time, be emotionally involved leading to greater understanding and appreciation of Huntington’s Disease, the burden of those who have inherited it, the day by day challenges their carers.
