Calling Dr Gillespie *** (1942, Lionel Barrymore, Donna Reed, Philip Dorn, Phil Brown) – Classic Movie Review 11,300

MGM dump conscientious objector Lew Ayres… 

‘Tops for excitement! A lovely girl’s happiness threatened… Dr Gillespie’s life at stake… and a maniacal killer stalks the corridors of a great hospital!’

Director Harold S Bucquet’s 1942 hospital drama Calling Dr Gillespie stars Lionel Barrymore, and is based on a story by Kubec Glasmon, and is the first Dr Kildare-less entry in the series, starting a new Dr Gillespie series.

Hollywood is nothing if not resourceful, not to mention ruthless. MGM studios were so horrified when their star Lew Ayres (who played Dr Kildare in the long-running series) declared himself a conscientious objector in World War Two that they promptly dropped him.

But the series now continued with the star emphasis switched to nice crusty old Barrymore (MGM boss Louis B Meyer’s favourite star) playing Dr Gillespie from a wheelchair and coping with a run of new interns. So it ends up with Gillespie having a new assistant, refugee Dutch surgeon Dr John Hunter Gerniede (Philip Dorn).

Also in this yarn, Roy Todwell (Phil Brown), an unbalanced impatient former patient, breaks into Blair General Hospital to kill Gillespie. Walter Kingsford again plays the snobbish hospital head Dr P Walter Carew and Charles Dingle is Dr Ward O Kenwood.

Ava Gardner has an uncredited bit part as a graduating student at Miss Hope’s.

Also in the cast are Donna Reed as Marcia Bradburn, Phil Brown as Roy Todwell, Nat Pendleton as Joe Wayman, Alma Kruger as Molly Byrd, Mary Nash as Emma Hope, Walter Kingsford as Dr Walter Carew, Nell Craig as Nurse Nosey Parker, Ruth Tobey as Marcia’s roommate Susie Prentiss, Jonathan Hale as Frank Marshall Todwell, Charles Dingle as Dr. Ward O. Kenwood, Marie Blake as receptionist Sally, Nana Bryant as Mrs. Marshall Todwell, Eddie Acuff as Clifford Genet, Charles R Moore as Porter and Ray Teal as Policeman.

Screenplay: Willis Goldbeck and Harry Ruskin.

Running time: 84 minutes.

It was a box office success: costing $416,000 it grossed $642,000.

The title is a riff on the second Dr Kildare film, Calling Dr Kildare (1939).

Philip Dorn (born Hein van der Niet, 30 September 1901 – 9 May 1975) served in the Queen Wilhelmina’s Dutch Royal Guards. He moved to the US in August 1939, just a fortnight before World War Two broke out.

The Dr Gillespie films are: Calling Dr Gillespie (1942), Dr Gillespie’s New Assistant (1942), Dr Gillespie’s Criminal Case (1943), Three Men in White (1944), Between Two Women (1945) and Dark Delusion (1947).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,300

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com