The Great Moment

McCrea plays the Boston dentist who discovered an agent to take most of the pain out of extracting teeth--and other surgical operations--anesthesia (the name given it by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes). The film follows McCrea from young student forced to turn to dentistry because of the expense of medical school to his experiments with ether. His not always understanding wife, Field, and his human guinea pig, Demarest, support him through all his trials, and eventually he becomes wealthy from his discovery, then donates his wealth to mankind. Director Sturges, better known for his comedies, handles the drama and story well.