The Doctor Takes a Wife *** (1940, Loretta Young, Ray Milland, Edmund Gwenn, Reginald Gardiner, Gail Patrick) – Classic Movie Review 11,944

Director Alexander Hall’s 1940 Columbia Pictures American comedy film The Doctor Takes a Wife stars Loretta Young, Ray Milland, Edmund Gwenn, Reginald Gardiner, and Gail Patrick. It is based on a story by Aleen Leslie.

Feminist best-selling authoress Young and ambitious medical teacher Milland are mistaken for newly-weds in a publicity stunt. They masquerade as man and wife living together, so she can gain material for her new book and he can win a professorship. Initially they banter a lot, but then they fall in love.

The Doctor Takes a Wife is a featherweight but especially amusing screwball comedy with frothy performances and a fast pace covering any little gaps and inadequacies in the generally bubbly screenplay by George Seaton and Ken Englund.

Screenwriter, playwright and novelist Aleen Leslie (née Wetstein; February 5, 1908 – February 2, 2010) died just three days short of her 102nd birthday, the oldest member of the Writers Guild of American-West.

The cast are Loretta Young as June Cameron, Ray Milland as Dr. Timothy Sterling, Reginald Gardiner as John R. Pierce, Gail Patrick as Marilyn Thomas, Edmund Gwenn as Dr. Lionel Sterling, Frank Sully as Louie Slapcovitch, Gordon Jones as O’Brien, Georges Metaxa as Jean Rovere, Charles Halton as Dr. Streeter, Joseph Eggenton as Dr. Nielson, Paul McAllister as Dean Lawton, Chester Clute as Johnson, Hal K. Dawson as Charlie, Edward Van Sloan as Burkhardt and Virginia Sale as school teacher.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,944

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