THE YOUNG DOCTORS
US, 1961, 102 minutes, Black and white.
Fredric March, Ben Gazzara, Ina Balin, Eddie Albert, George Segal, Arthur Hill, Rosemary Harris, Aline Mac Mahon.
Directed by Phil Karlson.
The Young Doctors is based on Arthur Hailey's novel 'The Final Diagnosis' and his adaptation of it for a television play, No Deadly Medicine. It has the Hailey soap opera best-seller ingredients - always popular for television soap operas and mini-series. This kind of film seems somewhat out of date in later decades because of the opportunity of mini-series to develop the various sub-plots and parallels.
The film was directed by Phil Karlson, director of many tough gangster films and westerns. The cast is also strong but depends for its success on the presence of Fredric March. It has an interesting supporting cast of veterans: Aline Mac Mahon, Edward Andrews. It has a group of actors and actresses who were about to become more famous: Arthur Hill, George Segal, Rosemary Murphy.
The material is familiar - but engaging enough while it is on screen, even though it is easy to see through!
1. The perennial appeal of soap operas about hospitals? The change of styles for every decade? The '60s and the interest in hospitals and especially the problems of interns? The soap opera style - and the later send-ups?
2. Production values: black and white photography, the hospital - a blend of the studio and the authentic? The editing in of the various sub-plots? Elmer Bernstein's musical score?
3. The title and its focus on the clash between the generations of doctors? Hailey's title for his novel and for his teleplay?
4. The screenplay and the range of sub-plots and their interweaving? Credible? Melodramatic? Coincidental?
5. The film's presentation of hospitals and their running, routines, ethical questions, emotional questions, inevitable clashes? Frustrations, administration? Generation gaps?
6. Ben Gazzara's style as David Coleman: the young doctor, trained, modern techniques? The clash with Dr. Pearson and the scenes between the two? The attraction towards Kathy and falling in love? The regular punctuations of the sub-plots to show their deepening love? The clashes about the serum, especially for Dr. Alexander? Dr. Dornberger and his supplying the blood? The baby being saved? Kathy and her infection, David's decision that the leg should be amputated, Dr. Pearson's negative? David being wrong - which means a victory for Pearson and Coleman each as well as an error? The basis for some kind of reconciliation and modification of stance?
7. Kathy as attractive heroine, work in the hospital, falling in love with David, her infection, decisions about the amputation? Her not having to have her leg amputated?
8. Fredric March's performance as Dr. Pearson, inner strength, older, crusty? Tradition, experience? Frustration with hospital administration? Resenting the new? His lack of updated knowledge? The clashes? The routines? The question about the serum and his cancelling the examination of Dr. Alexander's wife's blood? The consequences for the baby? His opinion about Kathy's leg? The reconciliation and his decision to resign?
9. Dr. Dornberger and his assistance, efficiency, humour, supplying the blood?
10. Dr. Alexander, his work, his wife, the tests, the serum, the difficult birth, the blood transfer, healthy wife and baby?
11. The supporting cast - the personnel of the hospital, the range of doctors and interns?
12. The popular themes of health and healing in soap operas? The variety of sub-plots and strands, tensions. emotions? A popular exploration of conventional values?
