movieman1957 wrote:Got to watch "Doctor Bull" from an old AMC showing that I had taped. Nice little film. Nothing earth shattering going on here but nice film about a small town doctor dealing with town busy bodies and, naturally, a host of illnesses. The man can't get any sleep because if he is not delivering babies he is trying to cure one man's paralysis and Andy Devine's hypochondria.
Will Rogers gives a nice performance with plenty of subtle one liners and sage advice for the younger folks in town. He may be tired of being a doctor but he will always be what he is - a man who cares about the people he treats.
My favorite line is on a Sunday morning after church a group is gathered around the cemetery and he comes up to them and asks - "What's the matter? Somebody trying to get out?"
The tussle
Doctor Bull goes through trying to get the backward elements of his small town to vaccinate their kids really makes this one all too relevant. I thought that this movie and a non-
John Ford flick (sorry), called
Doubting Thomas (1935-David Butler) are two of
Rogers' most endearing, nearly forgotten performances. In the latter, based on a
George Kelly play,
The Torch Bearers, satirized the sometimes unfortunate productions of plays by untalented pretentious small town folk at the height of The Little Theater movement in America in the 1920s.
Will watches Billie honing her craft.
Rogers plays
Billie Burke's husband.
Burke and
Rogers are a dynamite comic duo and a believable married pair. The entire film is slight, but fun, especially when the camera just focuses on
Will's mug as he tries to "appreciate" the drama that is being performed which is the best, nearly priceless sequence in the sometimes slow moving film. He also has a few choice comments to make about this catastrophe in the making. Both films are on DVD.