I have to recommend this film highly on daytime soap opera terms, as if you watch the series in sequence, there is a serial like element to the film. James Kildare (Lew Ayres) is the son of a small town Connecticut doctor (Samuel S. Hinds) who assumes he will join him as a partner upon graduating from medical school. But the young Dr. Kildare (hense the title) has already been selected to join the group of interns at New York's Blair Hospital under the watch of two stern taskmasters, chief physician Dr. P. Walter Carew (Walter Kingsford) and the elderly Dr. Leonard Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore), a grumbling and sarcastic medic who has continued his career in spite of bad legs. Now confined to a wheelchair, Dr. Gillespie rolls around, barking at nurses and interns, with only Nurse Molly Byrd (Nell Craig) able to stand up to him. In this film, Molly is a minor character, but once Alma Kruger took over the part in the second film, the character became someone to be reckoned with. Imagine a voice-over, as on soap operas, saying, "The role of Molly Byrd is now being played by.....", as it would have when Lewis Stone took over the role of Judge Hardy from Barrymore in the "Andy Hardy" series.
As young Dr. Kildare begins to learn not only his job but the ways of the city he works in as well, he matures greatly, and eventually it is apparent he will have the respect of Dr. Gillespie. Jo Ann Sayers makes her first of two appearances as Ayres' small town love interest, who will fade away once Laraine Day's nurse is introduced in the next film. The presence of Nat Pendleton as the Ambulance assistant and Marie Blake as the Emergency Room receptionist add for all sorts of hilarity. Blake's wisecracking nurse would become famous in the later films for such quotes as "I may work in a hospital, but I don't know anything about medicine. My brother works on a chicken farm, but still can't lay an egg", or "My brother works at the zoo with the monkeys, but can't hang by his tail." My favorite line of hers in the series though was, "They are blaming the hospital for us treating a patient for appendicitis and dying of consumption. When our patients are treated for appendicitis, they die of appendicitis!" (The quote may not be right on, but you get the idea....) As for Gillespie, Barrymore will steal every single scene he is in. As Ayres discovers, Gillespie may seem like a mean old grump, but he has his own agenda, which includes Kildare in every detail. Barrymore in this series is a treasure. Kildare's parents (Samuel S. Hinds and Emma Dunn) are his own Ma and Pa Hardy, typical of Louis B. Mayer's homage to the American parents, and will make appearances in several of the films. The big medical crisis in this film involves a young suicidal socialite whom Ayres must find a reason to bring to her to continue to have the will to live. How he does it is quite interesting and is a nice set up for what the rest of the series (even the later ones without Dr. Kildare) would have to live up to.
As young Dr. Kildare begins to learn not only his job but the ways of the city he works in as well, he matures greatly, and eventually it is apparent he will have the respect of Dr. Gillespie. Jo Ann Sayers makes her first of two appearances as Ayres' small town love interest, who will fade away once Laraine Day's nurse is introduced in the next film. The presence of Nat Pendleton as the Ambulance assistant and Marie Blake as the Emergency Room receptionist add for all sorts of hilarity. Blake's wisecracking nurse would become famous in the later films for such quotes as "I may work in a hospital, but I don't know anything about medicine. My brother works on a chicken farm, but still can't lay an egg", or "My brother works at the zoo with the monkeys, but can't hang by his tail." My favorite line of hers in the series though was, "They are blaming the hospital for us treating a patient for appendicitis and dying of consumption. When our patients are treated for appendicitis, they die of appendicitis!" (The quote may not be right on, but you get the idea....) As for Gillespie, Barrymore will steal every single scene he is in. As Ayres discovers, Gillespie may seem like a mean old grump, but he has his own agenda, which includes Kildare in every detail. Barrymore in this series is a treasure. Kildare's parents (Samuel S. Hinds and Emma Dunn) are his own Ma and Pa Hardy, typical of Louis B. Mayer's homage to the American parents, and will make appearances in several of the films. The big medical crisis in this film involves a young suicidal socialite whom Ayres must find a reason to bring to her to continue to have the will to live. How he does it is quite interesting and is a nice set up for what the rest of the series (even the later ones without Dr. Kildare) would have to live up to.