Doctor Bull (1933)

Information from IMDb

Plot Summary
Dr. Bull is an old-fashioned country doctor whose affair with the widow Janet Cardmaker
is creating waves in the small town where he practices.
When there is a mysterious outbreak of typhoid which the doctor is slow in reacting to,
it all comes to a head.
The townspeople hold an emergency meeting and decide to give Dr. Bull the sack
and bring in a new doctor. Dr. Bull must find a way to save his job,
his reputation, and a young man's life, whom all other practitioners
have written off as a permanent invalid.
Written by Alfred Jingle

Full Cast
Will Rogers ... Dr. George 'Doc' Bull
Vera Allen ... Mrs. Janet 'Jane' Cardmaker, Widow of Charles Edward Cardmaker / Bull's Girlfriend
Marian Nixon ... May Tupping - Telephone Operator
Howard Lally ... Joe Tupping
Berton Churchill ... Herbert Banning - Janet's Brother
Louise Dresser ... Mrs. Herbert Banning
Andy Devine ... Larry Ward, Sodajerk
Rochelle Hudson ... Virginia (Muller) / Banning
Tempe Pigott ... Grandma Banning
Elizabeth Patterson ... Aunt Patricia Banning
Nora Cecil ... Aunt Emily Banning
Ralph Morgan ... Dr. Verney, Owner Verney Laboratory
Patsy O'Byrne ... Susan - Dr. Bull's Cook
Veda Buckland ... Mary - Janet's Maid
Effie Ellsler ... Aunt Myra Bull
Helen Freeman ... Helen Upjohn, New Winton Postmistress
Reginald Barlow ... Supporter #1 for Dr. Bull (uncredited)
Louise Carter ... Mrs. Ely, New Winton's Gossip (uncredited)
James Donlan ... Harry Weems - Supporter #3 for Dr. Bull (uncredited)
Mike Donlin ... Lester Dunn - Supporter #2 for Dr. Bull (uncredited)
Francis Ford ... Mr. Herring, Metting Chairman (uncredited)
Mary Gordon ... Townswoman at Meeting (uncredited)
Ethel Griffies ... Miss Ace (uncredited)
Otis Harlan ... Agitator (uncredited)
George Humbert ... Louis Papolita, New Father of Boy (uncredited)
Si Jenks ... Gaylord, Janet's Farmhand (uncredited)
Cammilla Johnson ... Little Girl (uncredited)
Marcia Mae Jones ... Ruth, a School Girl (uncredited)
Charles Middleton ... Mr. Upjohn, Selectman (uncredited)
Sarah Padden ... Mary the Canning Cook (uncredited)
Robert Parrish ... Teenager (uncredited)
Billy Watson ... Billy Watson, School Boy (uncredited)

Writing Credits
James Gould Cozzens (novel "The Last Adam")
Paul Green (adaptation)
Jane Storm (continuity)
Philip Klein uncredited

Original Music
Samuel Kaylin (uncredited)

Cinematography
George Schneiderman

Trivia
In the book, there are discussions about abortion between Doctor Bull and Virginia Banning. These were dropped from the script after a complaint from the Hays Office. In the movie, there is just a vague notion she is pregnant. Also, the character of Larry Ward had a venereal disease in the book, but in the film he's just a hypochondriac.

Memorable Quotes

Doctor Bull is one of the less-often-shown
of the films that John Ford made at Fox,
from the first half of the 1930s and was adapted from The Last Adam,
a novel by James Gould Cozzens.

The plot, concerning small-town life and morality and a man's running
afoul of the latter, could hold up well, especially as the man in question
is played by Will Rogers, who certainly knew how to win an audience over.
The problem lies in Ford's direction, which seems to be a throwback
to the silent era in terms of emoting and nuances on the part of the cast,
coupled with the relative lack of camera movement typical of the early sound era
(and the silent era circa the teens).
The primitive acting styles and directorial technique make
for a surprisingly slow-going 90 minutes for modern viewers,
even making allowances for the movie's age and giving Ford a
ll manner of benefits of the doubt.

User Review

Quote

2 August 2002 | by Kalaman (Ottawa)

"Doctor Bull" is Ford's first of three collaborations with Will Rogers. Much like their later pictures, it combines humor and drama with greater emphasis on dialogue and performance rather than narrative. Mr. Ford admired Rogers' folksy charm and found in him a figure whose moral wisdom perfectly matched with his own. In these leisurely and unpretentious pictures, Rogers is successfully a healer and reconciler, but, like most of Ford's subsequent protagonists, he is also a melancholy and lonely figure.

Though it is nowhere near the charm, subtlety and enduring greatness of "Judge Priest"(1934) & "Steamboat 'Round the Bend"(1935), "Doctor Bull" is nonetheless worth seeing for Mr. Rogers' loving portrayal of a small-town Connecticut doctor combating typhus and narrow-mindedness.

It is interesting to note that in the same year Rogers starred in another whiff of Americana - Henry King's lovely and often underrated "State Fair."

Display More