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Dr. Socrates

1935, Movie, NR, 74 mins

Dr. Socrates: Review

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A rare film in that it is a most minor effort from a most major actor who went on to essay the lives of so many important historical figures, such as JUAREZ, THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA, and THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR as well as Al Capone in SCARFACE and Napoleon, Schubert, and Don Juan in SEVEN FACES. This is a comparatively lightweight effort that came at the nadir of the Warner Bros. "gangster" cycle, although it was remade just four years later with Humphrey Bogart and Kay Francis as KING OF THE UNDERWORLD. Muni is a surgeon who has relocated in a tiny hamlet in an attempt to change his life after the death of his fiancee, a deed he accepts responsibility for, though it's only a ploy to get him out of the big city and into the tiny burg for the story's sake. MacLane is a bank robber who took several bullets in his last robbery, and he and his gang come to Muni so the doc can pull the lead out of MacLane's flesh. Once that's done, the gang members make Muni their official medical advisor, even though he'd rather they just go off somewhere else. Meanwhile, Muni gets warm for Ann Dvorak, a hitchhiker the gang picked up, and the rest of the burghers think that she's part of the criminal contingent. Muni tells the crooks that there is a scarlet fever epidemic and they have all been exposed to it. If not stopped immediately, the disease can result in a painful death. The men line up for their shots, and Muni injects them all with morphine just as they are about to resist a siege at their country hideout. No one explains why the narcotic puts everyone in the gang to sleep except MacLane, who spends the last few minutes taking pot-shots at everyone. But the picture is near the end by that time and licenses were applied for on the part of the screenwriters in order to get the heck out of the plot and put Muni and Dvorak together so viewers could go home. Muni never liked this picture and it's easy to understand why. leave a comment
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