Dr. Socrates (1935)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Excellent but underrated film

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I was hesitant to watch this film because I feared it was just another of the boringly similar gangster films that Warner Brothers churned out in the 1930s. And while this film does have a gangster connection, it avoids becoming cliché."Dr. Socrates" (as he is called; Muni's character) is a young physician rather out of place in the small town in which he resides. He has few paying patients. As a result, a gangster (Barton MacLane) targets Muni as the right doctor to take care of any injuries that befall him or his gang. Meanwhile, MacLane picks up a female hitchhiker on the way to a bank robbery; she gets shot and is suspected of being a moll since she was in the getaway car. Muni takes her in, and they fall in love (naturally). Meanwhile, MacLane wants her back, and in a rather clever turn, Muni subdues the gang through drugs and saves the girl...just as the G-Men sweep in. Dr. Scorates is soon a hero instead of an outcast, and it appears that he and his lady will live happily ever after.Although there are some issues with the plot (for example, would a gangster really pick up a hitchhiker on the way to a bank robbery?), overall it works pretty well, and is a relatively unique story.Paul Muni is brilliant here. It's only in the past few days -- as TCM had a mini-film festival -- that I began to watch Muni flicks. I'm impressed. In each one he looks so different that one might not recognize them as the same actor.Ann Dvorak is very good as the hitchhiker.But, a mistake was made with Barton MacLane here as the head gangster. You'd almost think he was acting while on meth! I'm no fan of MacLane's anyway, but even less than normal in this picture.Helen Lowell is pleasant as the cleaning lady. And note Mayo Methot as a moll; she had a knock-down/drag-out marriage with Humphrey Bogart beginning 3 years after this film was made. You'll recognize several other character actors in the cast; they all do nicely.This is an entertaining film!

Paul Muni plays a small town doctor who becomes mixed up with a wounded criminal (Barton MacLane) and falls for a pretty hitchhiker (Ann Dvorak). A fine WB crime drama that moves with a crisp pace. Mustachioed Paul Muni reunites with his Scarface costar Ann Dvorak. Muni is excellent in one of his more subdued roles. Dvorak is lovely and gives an effortless performance. As different as Muni was from other Hollywood actors at the time, Dvorak was just as different from the other actresses. She rarely goes for the theatrical or hysterical. Her performances are usually much more grounded than, say, Bette Davis, who never saw a rafter she didn't reach for. The standout of the movie is Barton MacLane, shouting and swaggering his way through every scene. It's a real treat to watch. As usual, the stable of WB supporting players are superb. Remade as King of the Underworld with Kay Francis and Humphrey Bogart, whose first wife Mayo Methot appears here as MacLane's moll.

Ann Dvorak first hit Hollywood as a choreographer and dancer but once she broke out of the chorus line and into dramatic parts she made an immediate impact. With her intensity and ravishing beauty she could have spent her career being an adornment in any film she was placed in but she was a fine actress and wanted better parts and treatment - unfortunately she received neither. Warners lost interest in their feisty star and started putting her into any film that came along. There were duds (she must have cringed when she recalled her part in "Heat Lightning") but there were also some interesting ones. "Dr. Socrates" had her starring with Paul Muni who in the 1930s was Warner's most important star even though Robinson and Cagney were far more popular.This is a great little movie about a small town doctor jokingly called "Dr. Socrates" by the local wags because he always has his head in a book and Jo (Dvorak), a young hitch-hiker, who unwittingly finds a ride into town with the local bad boy turned vicious gangster, Red Bastian (Barton MacLane). Unfortunately for Dvorak and Muni, once MacLane hits the scene there is no room for anyone else. Barton "why speak when shouting will do" MacLane is just fantastic as the "rough as guts" gangster - he never leaves centre stage, whether he is making a call on the doc to remove a bullet or holding forth among his gang (Marc Lawrence has a bit as a young punk) - even Mayo Methot as his moll "Muggsy" is no match for his brawling and brutish ways.If it wasn't for Barton and Ann, this would be just another movie about "down home folk" with a few holes. Muni's doctor doesn't have a particularly warm persona and he doesn't seem concerned when "Ma" can't pay the grocery bills. When Jo realises she is riding with bank robbers she tries to escape but is shot and taken to the doctor. For a while I thought it was going to be similar in plot to "Fury". The establishing shots had shown a lot of the town's people as narrow minded, finding the doctor a figure of fun just because he is a square peg in a round hole. Word gets out that Jo is a gun moll and there is a scene where it seems like the whole town converges on the doctor's doorstep to run Jo out of town.The last part of the movie takes place at the gang's hideout. Red has kidnapped Jo - she is going to be his girl from now on and the doctor, on finding her, realises that the hideout is in the vicinity of a typhoid outbreak. MacLane seemed to have so much fun with his role, especially when he tries to convince Jo that he can be real fun to be around while threatening to knock "Muggsy" silly!!! Terrific fun!!

As a film Dr. Socrates is significant in the career of Paul Muni because it is the first time he worked with William Dieterle who directed all of his biographical films at Warner Brothers for which he became best known for. They must have liked working together because Muni would not have had him as a director again, he had that kind of clout and was that demanding of his bosses at Warner Brothers. The film itself is a minor drama with Muni playing the role of a kindly doctor who has settled in an obscure small town to forget the death of his sweetheart. As the town already has a doctor in Robert Barrat, there are some in the town who don't really take to Muni. But enough do so he gets by.Although no one knows it the town is also the center of a vicious gang of robbers, headed by a John Dillinger like hoodlum played in swaggering style by Barton MacLane. The gang's hideout is at Olin Howland's farm, MacLane and the rest are from the area. He's public enemy number one in the parlance of the day.One day MacLane is wounded in a bank holdup and he and the gang stop in at Muni and force him at gunpoint to patch him up. MacLane likes his work and now thinks he can intimidate the soft spoken Muni into being their regular physician.Although Ann Dvorak had to be introduced somehow as a love interest, the script's biggest fault is the fact that she's wounded in a bank robbery at the hometown. She's a hitchhiker, but a lot believe she was in with the gang. Cardinal rule in real life and films, you absolutely don't do any criminal business in or near your sanctuary. Usually people don't steal the show from Paul Muni, but in this case the swaggering, bullying Barton MacLane may have given the best performance of his career. MacLane was a menacing guy in films with that rasping voice of his and it was never put to better advantage than in Dr. Socrates.Three years later the basic plot of Dr. Socrates was used again for King Of The Underworld where Kay Francis is a female doctor and Humphrey Bogart the gangster. Dr. Socrates is a minor effort from Paul Muni, but still an enjoyable film. His next film was The Story Of Louis Pasteur, directed by William Dieterle that would set Muni's Hollywood image for all time.