Society Doctor

• 1935
• 1 Hr 7 Mins
• Drama

Bill Morgan and Tommy "Sprout" Ellis are both surgical interns at Metropolitan Hospital, Bill the head intern making him Sprout's superior. While not friends per se, they get along well enough and respect each other's work and work ethic. One other thing tying them together is that they are both in love with surgical nurse Madge Wilson, and she with them. While she is more in love with Bill, he stopped pursuing her, or any woman for that matter, in believing that the life of an intern at a hospital, including financially, does not make for good husband material. That ethical part of their character, most specifically of Bill, is placed into question when a young man, Frank Snowden, is brought into the Emergency ward. The case goes up the proper chain from Sprout to Bill, both who come to the pretty certain diagnosis of a ruptured appendix, which requires immediate surgery. While the man's wealthy father wants to wait for the arrival of their own physician Dr. Harvey before allowing a surgery to proceed, Bill, knowing that time is of the essence, does whatever he can to proceed with the surgery as soon as possible, he finding a loophole of sorts to do so much to the ire of Mr. Snowden Sr. This act places Bill at odds with both Dr. Harvey and the hospital's doctor supervisor, Dr. Horace Waverly, who ends up firing Bill. Bill, in return, rightly accuses both his senior doctors not only of not keeping up with the latest in medicine and surgery, but of kowtowing to the whims and wants of their patients who are comprised solely from the wealthy society class. Bill may get a taste of the other side when another of Dr. Harvey's wealthy patients, Mrs. Crane, solely in the hospital to seek attention as she is not suffering from anything major, wants to set Bill up in a lucrative private practice to treat her and all her wealthy friends, all currently patients of Dr. Harvey. This situation is set against a backdrop of other things going on at the hospital this evening. including a plethora of expectant fathers coming in, insurance agent Moxley trying to get the best deal for his company by getting the worst deal for the client patient, Police Officer Pete Harrigan suffering from a serious gunshot wound, and gangster Butch McCarthy, caught as the one who shot Harrigan, allowed to come into the hospital to visit his mother who is on her "deathbed".