I Married a Doctor

Despite its inane title, this is a strong little movie. Pat O'Brien is excellent, as are the supporting players.

I am a sucker for movies about the joys of country living. Two that come to mind are "Mother Carry's Chickens" and "The Get-Away." Yet, there is a reason I live in Manhattan and not in a small town, which I did as a teenager.

This is the story of a sophisticated woman who tries to be liked by the townspeople where well loved doctor O'Brien practices. It is an uphill battle. The woman are envious and catty. The men are staunchly unwelcoming.

She is drawn to the son of a prosperous farmer, the artistic Erik (Ross Alexander.) Though her interest is only in helping him attain his artistic goals, tongues start wagging. (This despite the fact that neither seems interested in members of the opposite sex, he most noticeably.) Even Doc O'Brien doubts her fidelity and she leaves, Alexander having been rather quickly disposed of in a car accident of which she is unaware.

O'Brien is enormously likable here; so coming back to him does make sense. Coming back to this horrid little town, which she does at the very end, however, does not. There is no reason to think she will be made to feel any more welcome than before her departure.

This is a watered down version of Sinclair Lewis's 1920's angry screed "Main Street" with an especially inane title- I Married a Doctor.The town is the villain in the novel. However, in the movie,Lewis's point is blunted, almost as if not to offend the moviegoers who might be denizens of small towns like the one described. Even the name of the town has been prettified. In the book the town is called Gophers Prairie- here it is called benignly-Williamsburgh.

The most important character change is the small town doctor. Dr. Will Kennicot, in the book, is a stolid, dense man who never seems to understand his wife Carol who is sinking under the weight of the hypocrisy and vapidity of small town life. In the movie, Pat O Brian plays the Doctor, very well , I might add, and he is a sensible hero who says- the town isn't the problem-it's human nature that's the problem.Lewis doesn't much agree. Carol is a bit of an idiot in the book, but Lewis's sympathies are clearly with her.

Casey Robinson is the credited screenwriter and as usual he does a good job with his dialogue, much of which sounds natural and human. The movie is fairly well directed and the story, what little there is moves along. However, Lewis dark vision of American life would not be accurately portrayed on the screen until 1960's Elmer Gantry.

Physician Pat O'Brien brings his new bride, Josephine Hutchinson to his hometown of Williamsburg somewhere in red state America where he's built his practice. Josephine's sophistication is a bad fit for Williamsburg and she gets the tail-feathers of the town's leading ladies all in an uproar.

She has one kindred spirit in Ross Alexander who's the son of a Swedish farmer. But Ross aspires to bigger and better things, as an artist or an architect. Ross mistakes Josephine's support of him for romance and that sets the stage for a whole lot of gossip, misunderstanding and ultimately, tragedy.

The problem with this picture is that it can't make up its mind. Small town America is shown with all the warts it has, but the people who don't like it have plenty of warts too. Ross Alexander is a weak character, he's a dreamer who just won't get off his rear end and leave. He'd rather just dream and he really gets off on being the misunderstood genius.

Not wanting to offend anybody, Warner Brothers solves the problem with a 100% guaranteed solution of love conquers all.

It's a very typical B film from Warners, probably played the second half of double bills with a lot of better product from that studio.

Good: a rock-solid, mug-free performance by Pat O'Brien, whose acting shines through many interludes of silence. Playing the doctor of the title trying to love his wife into some semblance of compatibility, he is the peerless star of this show; now I wonder why so many other screenwriters were anxious to stuff wordy, windy dialogue into his mouth in his other movies. Tantalizing: the lively-to-edgy supporting performance of Ross Alexander, a lost (to suicide) wonder of the '30s screen. A ringer for the young James Woods and a breezy screen presence, he's got the invincible ease that old-movie hounds like myself tend to think John Garfield invented. Watch this film and decide for yourself. Trite: Conformity is so stifling! Truly artistic people just can't be themselves in a small town! Well, not if they stay as angry as the misfits in this movie. O'Brien's morally grounded, subtle understanding of his character and all the others makes this movie better than average: 7/10.

For some inexplicable reason, Warner Bros. took Sinclair Lewis's acclaimed novel Main Street and gave it one of the most inane titles in screen history. The film is nonetheless a fine adaptation of the novel, telling the story of a sophisticated woman from the city at odds with the conventional values in a small American town.

Class act Josephine Hutchinson is perfectly cast as the discontented wife, and Ross Alexander is outstanding as the malcontent with artistic sensibilities who falls for the married Hutchinson. (Alexander's career was tragically cut short when he committed suicide in 1937. Ronald Reagan was allegedly chosen by Warner Bros. to replace Alexander, but in terms of talent, there's no comparison.) Pat O'Brian underplays the role of the doctor admirably, but he is still somewhat miscast, as he comes across as more sensitive than the at-times obtuse character depicted in the novel.

Well photographed, the film only disappoints with its cop-out ending, which tends to negate the quality of the rest of the film. However, if you think of the film's title as Main Street rather than I Married a Doctor, you should appreciate this unjustly neglected gem from the '30s.