User Reviews

It's often the rebels who find the real cause to fight, and here, it's a troubled young doctor (Donald Woods) fighting against members of his own surrogate family. raised by veteran doctor Joe King, he grows up with a rivalry with his foster brother Gordon Oliver whose drunkenness ends up getting Woods thrown out of medical school while trying to save the patient's life whom Oliver operated on while intoxicated. Sent to prison for manslaughter after a patient died that he operated on while practicing nursing, Woods ends up going to Cuba where he can practice medicine at a clinic there and is suddenly thrust into the operating room again when King needs a serious operation while traveling to Cuba to see him and is in an accident thanks to Oliver. Woods' mentor, Henry Kolker, and Kolker's lovely daughter, Jean Muir, are there to encourage Woods to strive to save King's life even though King and Oliver were responsible for him losing his medical license.

This is a bit of a convoluted medical drama that is interesting thanks to strong performances by Woods, Muir and Kolker. I certainly do not see this as a rival to the Dr. Kildare series, but as a "one off" medical film, it makes very important points about the profession to which these men would dedicate their lives to. I always felt that Muir deserved a better chance as in "A" list Warner Brothers leading lady, reminding me of Ann Harding and Irene Dunne with her ladylike demeanor but strong acting skills. For some reason after a strong start, she ended up in B films like this and was never able to move back up again.

While the film as a whole is filled with inadequacies, individual scenes are very strong and well written. The character that Donald Woods plays is certainly very avant-garde in his mannerisms and somewhat abrasive personality, but it is obvious that he has stronger moral obligations to the medical profession then foster brother Oliver. in my years of watching medical TV dramas and the entire Dr. Kildare an entire drt. Gillespie series, I don't recall seeing a plus anything like this one. Perhaps it was meant to have more of an "A" budget and another real or two to make the details stronger, but in spite of its obvious B status at Warner Brothers, it does have elements that indicate that it was meant to be a much more highly esteemed film with a front office and somewhere downgraded along the line.

"Alias the Doctor" is a very good B-movie starring Richard Barthelmess from 1932. Five years later, Warner Brothers remade the film as "Once a Doctor", though a few very significant changes were made to the story. Both are well worth seeing.

Steven Brace (Donald Woods) is a brilliant young doctor who is expected to one day be a great surgeon. His adoptive father is a well respected doctor and he wants not only Steven to be a doctor but his son, Jerry (Gordon Oliver). But there's a problem.... Jerry is a real spineless jerk as well as an alcoholic.

One night, Jerry is on duty at the hospital but instead of staying and doing his job, he sneaks off with a woman. He gets drunk and ends up having an accident on the way back to work. He manages to sneak back to the hospital, where he meets Steven and convinces Steven to try to help him out of a jam. It seems the woman is dying and Steven goes to try to save her. However, she dies and soon Steven is in trouble with the hospital. While he was gone, a patient has died and Jerry was SUPPOSED to take care of them while Steven was attending to the injured girl. Instead, he just got even drunker.

But when there's an investigation, Jerry lies about everything...blaming Jerry. The hospital believes Jerry...and Steven's career appears to be over....as well as his relationship with his adoptive father. What's next?

In a few ways, this film is better than the original story. In "Alias the Doctor", the alcoholic brother was more of a weakling than an evil man. Making him evil and weak in "Once a Doctor" makes for a better story...as in the original story the good son takes the rap and that really didn't make a lot of sense. Here, the good son TRIES to tell the truth but isn't believed. Like the original, both are tough to believe at times, but "Once a Doctor" manages to be a bit easier to believe and corrects a huge problem in the first film.