The Country Doctor (1936) Poster

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7/10
Jean Hersholt, the Danish Doctor
boblipton16 May 2008
Jean Hersholt tackles the role of a country doctor, a role that would eventually metamorphose into Dr. Christian, a series that would occupy him for the rest of his life in a B movie series, on radio, and even in one episode of a television series, cut short by his untimely death.

Here, directed by Henry King -- a brilliant jack-of-all-trades, but whose métier was the rural comedy-drama, starting with TOL'ABLE David -- and supported by a great cast including John Qualen, Montague Love, Jane Darwell and Slim Summerville, Hersholt is not precisely the star -- there are the usual youngsters involved with falling in love -- because this was intended as a publicity-driven programmer and the Dionne Quintuplets are actually top-billed. But everyone runs things through expertly and Jean Herholt was born to play this role.
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10/10
Quintuplets! A true story!
JohnHowardReid23 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Copyright 6 March 1936 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 12 March 1936 (ran 2 weeks). U.S. release: March 1936. Australian release: 24 June 1936. Sydney opening at the Regent. 8,680 feet. 96½ minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Doctor Roy Luke is a typical country doctor in the backwoods of Canada. His practice is threatened by the arrival of a new doctor hired by the major industry in the area. Dr. Luke eventually delivers quintuplets to a local family, and his career is saved. No special effects needed here. The quintuplets are real.

NOTES: One of the top domestic box-office releases of 1936, the movie also scored at Australian ticket windows, coming in at 36th place nationwide for the year. Stan Wright, manager of the Regent cinema in Sydney, estimates that the picture would have pulled in more customers had it been released at any other time other than the middle of winter. Although the picture scored only two weeks at the Hoyts premier showcase, Mr Wright pointed out that in terms of admission tickets sold, The Country Doctor rated eleventh on the list of the Regent's most successful attractions of 1936.

PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: No special effects needed here. The quintuplets are real. COMMENT: Such a marvelous film, poignant, inspiring, deeply moving, beautifully acted and produced, I am left for once without words to describe its superlative entertainment values. Let's just say it's one of the best films ever made. Congratulations all around. Especially to Hersholt and the players, Johnson and the writers, director King, the cameramen, set designers, film editor and music director.

Rarely has an exploitation movie turned out so brilliantly. For once the picturegoing public was amply rewarded. Is The Country Doctor worth five times its admission price? Yes, - and five times five!
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Queens of quints
dbdumonteil1 May 2009
The first part of the movie is the most interesting ,the plot sometimes recalling that of AJ Cronin's "the citadel" (which King Vidor transferred to the screen in 1938 with Robert Donat):the main difference is that King's film takes place in Northern Canada and the other one in a mining town in GB .

"The country doctor" is everything the title indicates: the life of a country doctor,devoted to his work,who often gets paid in chickens or in eggs ,who sometimes must cope with his patients' ungratefulness,who tries to urge the city chic people to do something about the plight of the country where "women deliver their children on the kitchen table".

Quints generally did not survive at the time.That the doctor succeeded in saving all of them was a miracle in itself .All the ending of the movie is given over to the first year of these quints ,relagating the nephew's love affair and the city folks' selfishness to a position of secondary importance.
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