Main Cast: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford
Release Year: 1955
Country: US
Run Time: 135 minutes
Plot
Ambitious but impecunious medical student Lucas Marsh (Robert Mitchum) marries the older and (in this film, at least) not especially attractive Kristina Hedvigson (Olivia de Havilland) so that she can pay his tuition fees. Kristina loves Lucas, but he loves nothing but his work. Emotionally shutting himself off from everyone -- including best friend, Alfred Boone (Frank Sinatra), and drunken dad, Job Marsh (Lon Chaney Jr.) -- Lucas survives his training and goes to work as the assistant to tough but tender small-town medico Dr. Runkleman (Charles Bickford). He enters into an affair with wealthy Harriet Lang (Gloria Grahame) (watch for the symbolism-laden tryst in the horse barn!), obliging Alfred, now a big-city doctor, to try to patch up his pal's marriage. But Lucas feels nothing and needs no one because he's come to think of himself as the perfect physician, incapable of making an error. When Lucas fails to revive his mentor Dr. Runkleman during heart surgery (a genuine heart is used in the "massage" close-ups), the young doctor suddenly realizes that he's not infallible after all. He wanders aimlessly through town, finally returning to his wife and collapsing into her arms, sobbing "Help me! Please help me!" Cameo players range from Broderick Crawford as a Jewish doctor denied entry into medicine's upper circles to Carl Switzer as a bug-eyed patient. The film was adapted from the best-selling novel by Morton Thompson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Adapting Morton Thompson's sprawling novel for the screen is a daunting task, but Edna and Edward Anhalt did an extremely admirable job in their screenplay for Not As a Stranger. Inevitably, of course, some of the subtleties have had to be sacrificed and things telescoped a bit too much here and there, but on the whole, Stranger's screenplay does a marvelous job of transferring the novel to the screen. If it still has a tinge of soap opera and occasionally makes its points a bit heavily, these were also flaws in the original source material. First-time director Stanley Kramer does a good job of keeping the story moving and involving, and he certainly knows how to play the melodrama for all its worth. Unfortunately, Stranger suffer s a bit from some key miscasting, most notably Robert Mitchum in the central role. Mitchum is an actor who can be enormously powerful and effective -- but in a fairly limited range of roles. The laconic air that works so well when disguising pent-up emotions works against the character here, disengaging him from the story and distancing the audience from him. In addition, both he and Frank Sinatra are too old for their roles. Sinatra does provide some much-needed humor, while Olivia de Havilland turns in solid, affecting work that goes a long way toward making up for Mitchum's deficiencies. There's also exemplary work from Broderick Crawford and Charles Bickford. Despite its flaws, Stranger still emerges as a powerful and memorable medical melodrama. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Howard Richmond - Art Director, Josh Fields - Consultant/advisor, Marjorie Lefevre R.N. - Consultant/advisor, Morton Maxwell - Consultant/advisor, Don Loper - Costume Designer, Joe King - Costume Designer, Carter De Haven, Jr. - First Assistant Director, Stanley Kramer - Director, Frank Kramer - Director, Frederic Knudtson - Editor, George Antheil - Composer (Music Score), George Antheil - Musical Direction/Supervision, Bill Woods - Makeup, Rudolph Sternad - Production Designer, Franz Planer - Cinematographer, John E. Burch - Production Manager, Stanley Kramer - Producer, Victor A. Gangelin - Set Designer, Earl Snyder - Sound/Sound Designer, Watson Jones - Sound/Sound Designer, Edward Anhalt - Screenwriter, Edna Anhalt - Screenwriter, Morton C. Thompson - Book Author
Thompson's novel is mentioned rather ironically in Marilynne Robinson's 1980 novel Housekeeping, where it is read by the young heroine (and narrator) Ruth. "That isn't the sort of thing you should be reading," her guardian, Sylvie, says; "I don't know how it got in the house!" The novel is eventually burned by Sylvie along with lots of other reading material before Sylvie and Ruth run away (chapter 10). "I did not tell her it was a library book," Ruth comments wryly.
Plot for the film
The movie follows a group of medical students through school, hospital internships, and eventually their careers as doctors. Dr. Lucas Marsh (Robert Mitchum) was blinded by ambition, losing his idealism after marrying older woman Kristina Hedvigson (Olivia de Havilland) in order to make it through medical school. He is indifferent toward his wife, dedicated only to his work. As he climbs his way to the top of the medical profession by using others, he is forced to face his morality after his misjudgement leads to the death of a friend.
