Lightweight comedy of the denizens of a dorm for medical students at the turn of the century. This is a film about a nice old lady who lets young medical students live in her home until they graduate from medical school. It takes place at the turn of the last century. Lillian Gish plays Miss Susie. This once famous silent film star is outstanding in the role, and outshines nearly every other actor. Sonny Tufts has top billing in this film followed by Joan Caulfield and then Veronica Lake. Don't ask me why. Tufts plays a new medical student who just moved in. I'm sorry but I just can't take him seriously in this role. He is a bit too naturally goofy and dim witted to be playing a role as a serious student. He was better as "Kansas" in "So Proudly We Hail" because his personality naturally fit that character.
Caulfield plays the daughter of the Dean of the medical school that Tufts is attending. She is incredibly bad in the role. Almost comical. This must have been one of her first films, and don't ask me how she ever received top billing over Veronica Lake. Anyway, Caulfield's character falls in love with Tufts and the rest is incredibly sappy. I suffered for almost an entire hour before Veronica's scenes finally appeared. In this film she plays a nurse who is in love with another medical student living in Miss Susie's house. She is good in the role. In fact she makes the other actor she is paired with seem like a bit of an amateur.
Veronica's image is quite toned down in this movie. There is none of that peek-a-boo bang thing going on in this film. In fact her character is quite reserved all together, and is dressed in a 19th century style conservative look. As far as Veronica Lake films go, if you're lucky enough to obtain a copy of this film you are in for quite a different experience. It is not one of her best and she has a small role. You will have to be very patient when watching this one.
Author: Randall Dumas (Hartford, Connecticut, USA)Lake does a pretty decent job with her diminished role and it's notable that in the posters we have a sexy Lake portrayed like she is "the other woman" but the movie plays out rather differently.
Some of the performances are flat but then the material is flat.. it doesn't lean hard enough into the drama or the plot not give you much investment in the characters. Everyone does and an adequate job but that's about it.
The plot mixes together a serious surgeon drama with a soppy romantic plot, a wholesome lads-all-together friendship and almost random scenes of Veronica Lake. The editing and construction of the movie just destroys the pace and flow of the material leading to a confused sequence of events that almost appear to be at random and could just have easily been rearranged without harming the current structure.
I'm here for Lake and she is oddly segregated into awkward two-hander sequences that feel like they are inserted almost at random into the movie to space out the main plot and not moving anything forward. At the very end she in finally incorporated into the main cast but it feels strangely late in the day and kinda pointless. Aimless and far too light for the weighty subject matter.
Notes:
That rear projection scene on the bikes.. was utterly bizarre when in the edit they are suddenly actually in the park.
Poor Lake looks stilted and bored with her awkward role, mostly side-lined as a love interest with no agency.
