3 Men in White (1944)

Excellent adaptation.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Like the later installments of the Dr. Kildare series, there is no Kildare nor is he mentioned. This is because the actor who originated this part, Lew Ayres, was a conscientious objector during WWII...and public sentiment was decidedly pro-war. So, he was excised from the films and Dr. Gillespie's role was greater emphasized. Additionally, three interns were featured--Van Johnson, Keye Luke and Philip Dorn (who left the series after "Calling Dr. Gillespie"). In this installment, Dr. Gillespie is supposed to pick a permanent assistant. How and Ames have done wonderfully so far and Dr. Gillespie has decided to give them each a case and then deciding which should have that job as a result of their work on these cases. How is given a case with a little girl who seems to have Juvenile Diabetes and Ames a case of a lady (Ava Gardner) who seems to have been drunk...but had no alcohol in her system. This film, as usual, is very interesting and enjoyable. As a fan of the series, however, I wonder why Mary Blake (the receptionist...and real life sister of Jeanette MacDonald) and Nat Pendelton were missing. Rags Raglan filled in nicely for the Pendelton role. Overall, despite some staffing changes, another typical and entertaining installment of this series.

It's been three months (and three movies) and Dr. Gillespie still hasn't decided on which of his two interns will become his new assistant. Once again he gives them each a case to decide the matter. Dr. Lee gets a case involving a little girl who gets sick when she eats candy. Dr. Adams helps a troubled young woman whose mother has a debilitating disease.Fourth entry in the Dr. Gillespie series is pleasant enough but the cracks are starting to show. Lionel Barrymore is especially cantankerous this time around ("Don't smirk at me you nincompoop!"). The longtime regulars are as good as ever. George Reed, as Gillespie's man Conover, gets some particularly funny lines this time. But the production values seem less impressive and the script isn't that great. Keye Luke is still going on about being from Brooklyn. I applaud MGM for trying to show that a Chinese-American is 'just like the rest of us' but enough already. Three movies in and he won't shut up about Brooklyn. He also reuses a line from an earlier film about giving a blood transfusion to a Jap. Still, it's Keye Luke and he's got a very likable and charming appeal. Early role for Ava Gardner ("I never get fat"). She's very pretty but hardly impresses with her acting. Van Johnson is the star of this one. He does well in his scenes with Gardner and sexy Marilyn Maxwell, though he was never convincing as a ladies man. Worth watching for fans of the Kildare & Gillespie films but this isn't one of the best.

This is the third entry in the Dr. Kildare series in which Van Johnson and Keye Luke play residents vying to be Dr. Gillespie's assistant. Several other people have mentioned this, and I noticed it before I read anything here, so I don't feel bad mentioning it again. Did anybody else see the parallels between this film and House, M.D.? Think about it. A brilliant diagnostician with a foul disposition (Barrymore as Dr. Leonard Gillespie) and a crippling disability is ordered to get an assistant and makes it a competition among the hospital's best and brightest, with Red Adams (Van Johnson) and Dr. Lee (Keye Luke) being the finalists. Was Molly Byrd, head nurse and Dr. Gillespie's oldest friend who bears Gillespie's grouchiness and insults with humor, in fact a model for Wilson? There are the usual interesting medical cases interspersed with the personal dilemmas of the staff - mainly Red - that comprise the drama. One interesting thing to notice is how the war is brought into the film, in statements that seem over the top and even a bit silly today. For example, even though Keye Luke has been in previous films in this series, it is again stressed at the beginning of the film that he is Chinese, just so nobody thinks there might be anybody of Japanese descent in the cast. Both residents mention how they want the assistantship to Gillespie so they will have a leg up going into the medical corps. At this point the war is almost over. Where have they been all of these years? A very young and lovely Ava Gardner shows up where you least expect her, and she is a woman of mystery to Red. Is Red falling for her or is something else going on here? Watch and find out.

**SPOILERS** With his top kick or head man at Blair General Hospital Dr. Kildare, or better yet actor Lew Ayres, off to war as a conscientious objector, driving ambulances on the front lines, Dr. Gillespie, Lionel Barrymore, is desperate to find his replacement. After searching high and low among his hundreds of interns Dr. Gillespie boils his search down to two candidates for Dr. Kildare's job doctors Randall "Red" Ames, Van Johnson, and Lee Won How, Keye Luke.Giving the two young doctors the task of finding a cure to a assigned patient's illness within a specific amount of time, like he's conducting some kind of game show or scavenger hunt, Dr. Gillespie will choose as his assistant the one who finds the cure first. A cocky Dr. Lee gets the job of finding out why little Mary Jones, Patrica Barker, is allergic to sugar like candy and sweet potato's. Red on his own takes up the task of finding out why this young woman-who refuses to reveal her name-Jean Brown played by Ava Gardner is walking and driving around dead drunk yet doesn't have a single drop of alcohol in her system?Wise old and manipulative Lenny Gillespie is really in favor of Red taking Dr. Kildare's place as his #1 assistant but Lee is determined to beat him to it by finding out what's the reason for Little Mary's acute anti-sugar problem. Meanwhle Red has his hands full with finding out the cause of beautiful brunette Jean's non-existent alcoholism which in fact turned out to be an anti-depression pill Jean had given to her by a friend of her's at a party she attended! Where at the same time Red's having this gorgeous blond Ruth Edley, Marilyn Maxwell, hounding him day and night to go out on a hot date with her! That on his measly $20.00 a month salary as an intern!As things tuned out Lee beats Red out in finding the cure, with Dr. Gillespie subconsciously tipping him off, for his patients, Litte Mary,illness and thus is to be rewarder in being Dr. Gillespie head man at Blair General. Lee also clues in Red, by showing him a nine year-old boy playing hop-scotch on the sidewalk, to what's the reason for Jean's drowsiness as a result of her pill popping which has to do with her depression over her mothers Mrs. Brown, Barbara Brown, arthritic condition. As it turned out the arthritis caused Mrs. Brown's right leg to be shorter then her left leaving her confined in a wheelchair for years. All Red now had to do is fit Mrs Brown with a special set of custom made shoes, at his bear bones salary where did he get the cash to buy them?, and everything including Jean's depressive state of mind, as a result in caring for her mother, would turn out fine.Red now feeling that he lost out to his colleague Lee in being top assistant to Dr. Gillispie, not knowing it was in fact Dr. Gillespie not Dr. Lee who came up with the cure for Litte Mary's illness,is ready to pack it in and join the US Marine Corps to fight the Japs in the far off South Pacific. It's then that Dr. Gllespie comes to his rescue pulling strings in getting Lee drafted into the Chinese Army as a field doctor on the front lines! Something that Lee wanted even more then being Dr. Gillespie's assistant!There's still the messy matter of Ruth messing up Red's mind by wanting him to hook up with her, for life, endangering his career in medicine! It's here that Dr. Gillespie, with a little help from his friends, saves Red's neck, as well a everything below it, in getting him out of that "terrible terrible jam" in a way that only he knows how.