Dr. Kildare's Strange Case is a 1940 American film directed by Harold S. Bucquet. This was the fifth of a total of ten Dr. Kildare pictures.
Plot summary
Dr. James Kildare gets competition for the heart of nurse Mary Lamont, when a brain surgeon, Dr. Gregory Lane, enters the scene at the hospital. James has not proposed to Mary yet because of his bad financial standing.
One day James is offered a well paid job at the Messenger Institute, but he rejects the offer to continue working with his inspiring mentor, Dr. Leonard Gillespie. Mary gives up all her hope of marrying James.
James and Lane are put together on a case where a man has had his skull fractured, and Lane, who has been quite unfortunate recently and failed to rescue the lives of his patitents, wants James to perform the surgery instead. James manages to persuade Lane to perform the surgery anyway, and when the man wakes up again he shows clear signs of insanity and mental illness. Lane's reputation as a surgeon is damaged again.
James is convinced that the man was mentally ill even before the accident which had fractured his skull, and risk his whole career by trying to prove this by injecting the man with insulin as treatment for the insanity. He succeeds, and restores both his and Lane's reputations.
After the patient is sane again, James reconciles him with his wife from whom he was separated five years ago. Seeing the couple reunited makes James propose to Mary even though he cannot afford a wedding, and she accepts his proposal.
Cast
- Lew Ayres as Dr. Kildare
- Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Leonard Gillespie
- Laraine Day as Nurse Mary Lamont
- Shepperd Strudwick as Dr. Gregory 'Greg' Lane
- Samuel S. Hinds as Dr. Stephen Kildare
- Emma Dunn as Mrs. Martha Kildare
- Nat Pendleton as Joe Wayman, Ambulance Driver
- Walter Kingsford as Dr. S.J. 'Walter' Carew, Hospital Administrator
- Alma Kruger Molly Byrd, Superintendent of Nurses
- John Eldredge (actor) as Henry Adams, Amnesia Patient
- Nell Craig as Nurse 'Nosey' Parker
- Marie Blake as Sally, Hospital Switchboard Operator
- Charles Waldron as Dr. 'Egghead' Squires, Messinger Inst.
- George Lessey as Rufus Ingersoll
- Tom Collins (actor) as Dr. Joiner
- George H. Reed as Conover, Gillespie's Attendant
- Paul Porcasi as Antonio 'Tony', the Hospital Chef
- Horace McMahon as J. Harold 'Fog Horn' Murphy
- Frank Orth as Mike Ryan, Sullivan's Hospital Cafe
- Margaret Seddon as Mrs. Julia Cray, Skin Alergy Patient
- Fay Helm as Mrs. Henry Adams
Category:1940 films
Category:American films
Category:English-language films
Category:Black-and-white films
Category:1940s drama films
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films