Mary Stevens is a doctor in a man’s world who finds her niche as a pediatrician since she’s judged by Patriarchal standards. Lloyd Bacon makes sure the titular doctor (Kay Francis) suffers the torment of the damned, her fierce determination forged in the fires of bigotry and becoming a vilomah.
Let me make this point directly: a child dies of polio. Not a periphery tragedy, a child of a minor character given little screen time, but the main character’s child we see born in secrecy and dawdled over and loved by her mother Dr. Stevens and nurse Glenda (Glenda Farrell). We get many cooing closeups with motherly affection, but one deadly pen unknowingly slathered in poliovirus transfers death from one child to an infant. It’s a real tearjerker. Here in Pre-Code cinema, not only do we have this baby born out of wedlock, but it’s also conceived from an adulterous affair between Mary and her childhood sweetheart Don (also an M.D.), unhappily married to a politician’s daughter with the hope for upward mobility. Mary saves his reputation and career when his drunken surgery goes awry, yet he suffers no consequence. Don (Lyle Talbot) isn’t portrayed as a bad man but a rather entitled one, a man who is given every chance at success when he most certainty hasn’t earned it! And Mary Suffers. She works hard lonely hours, has no personal life outside of work, makes little money in her private practice yet sees Don drive an $18,000 car ($363,000 in 2023 cash!!). When he escapes indictment for some apparent crime, Mary still supports and loves him without reservation. He promises divorce but soon Mary must escape to Europe to give birth to their illegitimate child. Of course, this is where the child contracts polio on the cruise and dies and Mary is torpedoed by grief, sinking towards suicidal tendencies. But a safety pin saves her life and the little life of another child. She finds her mojo once again, this time married to the recently divorced Dr. Don Andrews, whose name still dominates her professionally.
It’s an interesting film whose grief is front and center, with an undercurrent of homosexual attraction between Mary and her nurse. The original poster design actually depicts the “lover’s triangle”! Glenda actually seems jealous of Mary’s love for Don who does little to deserve it, and even has some snarky lines towards another nurse about her (the nurse's) one-night stands. We are never shown any indication that Glenda is interested in men, only in Mary’s emotional care. Mere friendship or pushing the boundary of 1933 cultural mores? Though Mary is independent and earns her own way, the film supports a reading that her true happiness is only in the embrace of a man. Or underneath.
Final Grade: (B-)