The story of Dr. Kildare.
Whatsoever house I enter, there will I go for the benefit of the sick.
Whatsoever things I see or hear concerning the life of men,
I will keep silence thereon, counting such things to be held as sacred trusts.
I will exercise my arc solely for the...
The story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres and Lionel Barrymore.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer brought you those famous motion pictures.
Now this exciting, heartwarming series is heard on radio.
In just a moment, the story of Dr. Kildare.
But first, your announcer.
Now the story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare
and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
The story of Dr. Kildare and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
Blair General Hospital.
One of the great citadels of American medicine.
A clump of grey-white buildings planted deep in the heart of New York.
The nerve center of medical progress.
Where great minds and skilled hands wage man's everlasting battle against death and disease.
Blair General Hospital.
Where life begins, where life ends, where life goes on.
Well, boys, you've poked and prodded this carcass of mine from beams to foundation.
And then hashed it all over between you. So let's have it now. What's the verdict?
No verdict yet, Mr. Malloy.
All you've had so far is a routine physical examination.
And the results until now are essentially negative.
Negative? Then you mean there's nothing wrong with me?
Kildare means we'll talk about verdicts when the fight's over.
This is only the first round.
Well, first round or not, you ought to know enough by now to tell what's causing a simple, ordinary stomach ache.
What kind of a hospital is this, anyway?
Malloy, suppose I came over to your office and told you one of your construction jobs is all wrong.
It ought to be changed.
Well, after 30 years in the game from bricklayer on up, I'd probably throw you out.
And that's precisely my attitude about diagnostics.
Now look here, Gillespie.
So either you settle down and do as you're told, or you take your stomach ache and go to some other doctor.
Well, I'll be.
All right, boys. I'm sorry. I guess a few years of white collars doesn't change your rough neck much.
Okay, I'll go along. What's the program?
Well, I'd say it calls for a general clinical.
Electrocardiogram, stomach x-ray, GU, gastroscope, the works.
Of course, you'll have to enter the hospital for a week's observation.
No, no, no. That's out. Don't forget, I've got a job to run.
Who's going to run it if you drop dead some morning?
I won't drop dead. I...
Now look, you're not holding out anything.
I've already told you there's no verdict yet.
Parker!
Yes, Dr. Gillespie.
Parker, since you undoubtedly know already what I want...
I do?
Well, don't you?
Well, I suppose you want me to arrange a private room for...
I was not listening at the keyhole.
There.
Miss Parker will take you down to register now, Mr. Malloy.
We'll set up your schedule later.
Don't try and sneak off or I'll send you a bill for $100 for wasting my time.
Parker, if you ever let that woman in here to see me again...
I'll see to it personally that you're exiled to the Brooklyn Clinic.
Well, after all, Dr. Gillespie, she's the wife of a patient...
and I suppose she only wanted to ask about his condition.
How was I to know? She'd tell her whole life story.
Her life story was nothing.
What took up all the time was Uncle Leroy's liver condition.
Forty minutes.
Well, in my opinion, a conversation like that should be very interesting to a diagnostician.
Parker, the only thing less interesting to me than Uncle Leroy's liver is your opinion.
Well...
Oh, Gillespie, come in, come in.
Good morning, Doctor. Parker.
Morning.
X-rays, you mean?
Yes, just came from the photo lab.
Here's one you'll probably want to see.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, Dan Malloy, a patient with the stomach ache.
Notice the lower left-hand corner. Here, let me move the light.
Well, now, one of the prettiest little peptic ulcers that ever walked into Blair Hospital.
Yes, isn't it?
The location and appearance is typical, and as far as I can see, it makes the diagnosis certain.
Yeah, I wonder what caused it. He's in pretty fair physical condition.
Well, I'd say everything points to a mental cause, conflict of some kind.
Psychosomatic, eh?
And no word for an idea as old as Plato.
The fact that the mind and the body influence each other.
You don't disagree with the idea, do you?
If I did, I'd have to go back and change all my diagnoses for the last 35 years.
Confound it.
If Malloy does have a mental conflict, it's probably that wife of his that's caused it.
Oh, you've met her, then?
Met her. She just presented me with 40 straight minutes of sheer boredom.
She'd give anybody a nil, sir.
Well, whatever the trouble is, I'm going to see if I can get to the bottom of it.
Jimmy, a doctor can carry his treatment just so far, and that doesn't include solving a patient's personal problem.
Oh? You know something, Dr. Gillespie?
I've heard you prescribe that idea at least 50 times, and I'm still waiting to see you follow your own prescription just once.
Sure, Dr. Kildare, there's a lot of things I'd rather be doing than sitting behind a fancy desk, great hours a day.
Only, I don't get it. What are you driving at?
Just a diagnosis, Mr. Malloy.
Now, how long have you been tied to that desk?
Seven long, cock-eyed years. Ever since I bought out my partner and took over the whole shebang alone.
You don't like it.
This may sound crazy, but I'd rather be back laying brick.
Mr. Malloy, have you ever thought of selling out, retiring?
You know, it's funny you brought that up, Dr. Kildare. I was just lying here in bed this morning remembering it.
Remembering it?
I got an idea like that once about ten years ago. Bought a 160-acre lodge in the back country upstate, place you probably never heard of, called Cranberry Lake.
Cranberry Lake, eh?
That's great fishing country. Hotten in the winter, miles of timberland. It's only 40 miles from the St. Lawrence River.
The kind of place where a man could forget all this city stuff.
Only you didn't move up there after you bought it, eh?
Now, you know how it is. You put things off. Not a kind of man, you see. My wife, she's kind of got the social bug the last few years, and she won't hear of moving off to some wilderness, as she calls it.
So...
Now, come in.
Mamie.
Good morning, Mrs. Malloy.
Why, Dr. Kildare.
Daniel, what have you been up to?
Nothing, Mamie.
You look just like a cat is eating a goldfish. Now, don't tell me you haven't been talking about something you shouldn't.
No, no, no. We were just talking about the lodge up at Cranberry Lake.
Oh, so that's it. Dr. Kildare, I certainly hope you told him how ridiculous that whole idea was.
Oh, no. As a matter of fact, I'm in favor of it. It'd be good for both of you to start relaxing, enjoying life.
Oh, no. After we've worked enslaved for years to get to be somebody, we're going to stay right here.
Now, Mamie...
I don't know, Mrs. Malloy. It seems like rather dubious satisfaction when you have to pay for it with a stomach ulcer.
Oh, nonsense. It's just like I was telling Dr. Gillespie earlier this morning about my Uncle Leroy.
I mean, only, of course, in his case, it was a liver condition. But nevertheless...
Mrs. Malloy, I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me now. I do have to look in on some other patients right away.
Well, I suppose if you have to, you have to.
Mr. Malloy, I think I understand your problem quite thoroughly now.
But I'll be done if I know what to do about it.
All right, Jimmy, all right. He hates his work. He's a man of action who's confined now to a desk.
His wife has the upper hand, and she's determined to make a gentleman out of him.
There's your answer, Dr. Gillespie. Physical pattern of reaction and no outlet for it.
Something had to give and something did. Peptic ulcer.
Well, all right. I agree with the diagnosis. So, then what?
Well, the... Well, that's just in. I don't know.
Of course, the prescription's obvious. But getting the patient to swallow the medicines is another problem.
Oh, it's no problem as far as he's concerned. He'd retire in a minute.
Too bad there isn't some society angle connected with this place upstate. She's highly impressed by social prestige and so on, you know?
Social prestige. Anybody who was such a stupid, half-baked, stuffed shirt of a nincompoop was to think that the only...
Now, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. Stupid, half-baked, stuffed shirt of a nincompoop. Now, who fits that description?
Only one person. And Jimmy, that may be the answer.
Doctor, I'm way ahead of you. Come on, let's go.
So, naturally, Dr. Carew, when we realized that we needed a man of resourcefulness, tact, social position, high intelligence, we immediately thought of you.
Oh, dear, dear, dear. Well, gentlemen, I hardly know what to say.
Don't worry, Carew. We'll tell you what to say.
He means to Mrs. Malloy, of course.
Oh, yes, why?
All you have to do is be your usual charming self.
Well, I suppose breeding does give one a certain air of savoir-faire?
Oh, no doubt of it. I've often noticed that you positively reek of savoir-faire.
Oh? Well, thank you. Now, about this primitive game preserve or whatever it is...
It's a lodge upstate at a place called Cranberry Lake.
Ah, yes. Part of the great outdoors, I assume, where men are... men and all that sort of rot.
Well, roughly speaking, yeah. But the way you'll tell it, Dr. Carew, the whole area is overrun with wealthy and socially prominent residents, friends of yours.
They're fictitious, of course.
Well, now, Dr. Gilder, I really do have friends of that sort, you know.
Oh, I never think of implying otherwise. And if you won't mind using real names, er, in vain, so to speak.
Oh, dear, dear, I... I hadn't thought of that. Well, gentlemen, this begins to smack of chicanery.
But it's all for a good cause, saving a human life.
Yes.
And for the first time in your medical career.
Well...
In such direct fashion, Dr. Gillespie meant to say.
Oh, yes, of course. Well, gentlemen, as much as I loathe all pretension sham, as much as I dislike calling attention to my, er, shall we say, unquestionably prominent family background.
That's our Dr. Carew, modest to a fault.
Shrinking violet.
As I say, in spite of these considerations, my duty in this time of crisis is all too clear.
Gentlemen?
He'll do it.
I'll do it.
Of course he'll do it.
Why, Dr. Carew, I had no idea that part of the state was so well known.
By people who matter, I mean.
Oh, yes. Yes, indeed.
And you say that Banda Vilch is having a state on the lake, and the pews, and Peter J. Dibblehoffer.
The third, that is.
Imagine that.
Daniel, did you know that when you bought the place?
No, I just liked the looks of it, that's all.
And Dr. Carew got the idea that you'd thought of moving up there in order to be near some of your close friends.
Oh, really, Dr. Carew?
Well, yes. Yes, indeed.
And after I'd been so put out with Daniel for years because he bought it.
Oh, I regard it as a most bought-in purchase.
As a matter of fact, I've been looking for just such a place myself for a long time.
Really, Dr. Carew?
Oh, yes, indeed.
You see, like many prominent people, Dr. Carew is a great lover of nature and a great outdoors.
In a desirable neighborhood, of course.
Daniel, I'm convinced. My mind is made up.
Good. I knew you'd see the advantages of living up there.
Oh, no, Dr. Kildare, Daniel and I are going to sell the place to Dr. Carew.
What?
But, Mrs. Malloy...
Not another word now, Dr. Carew.
It's what you've always dreamed of, and you're simply too well-bred to try to buy it.
But, but, but, but...
It's no earthly use to us, and so I've decided you're going to have it, and that's absolutely final.
But, but, but, Dr. Kildare...
I think I have a patient waiting in my office. Dr. Carew, are you really...
But, but, but, Dr. Kildare...
Congratulations, nature boy.
We will return to the story of Dr. Kildare in just a moment.
Now, we continue with the story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare and Lionel Baramore as Dr. Gillespie.
Well, Dr. Gillespie, that's that.
I'll confound it, Jimmy. I knew in the first place we should have let well enough alone.
Oh, we're no worse off now than we were, of course.
Poor Dr. Carew is, though. I wonder if she really will try to sell it in that place.
Why, sure she will. It'll serve him right, too, the nincompoop.
Jimmy, a doctor who hasn't sense enough to stick to medical problems ought to have his head examined.
I seem to have heard that before.
And it's true. You can't operate a day nursery for adult human beings. They have to learn to stand on their own feet.
Still, it's a shame to think of Malloy going back to a job he hates and doesn't even need while he eats his heart out for something he can't have.
He eats his stomach out more like it.
And now you've just walked into my trap, because that makes it a medical problem.
All right, all right. When it happens again, we'll treat him again.
You're opposed to preventive medicine, Doctor?
Well, tarnished. Nothing can be done, Jimmy. We've already had a try at it.
His stomach's being sacrificed to the glory of his wife's ambition.
That's a bit flowery, but the idea behind it's not exactly unheard of.
Of course it's not unheard of. It's happening all around us every day.
Modern, burnt offerings on the altar of civilization.
Stomachs, hearts, arteries, livers. And then they come around to us.
Doctor, can't you do something to keep it going?
I know I've abused it, but I want to be a vice president.
Just patch it up any old way, Doctor. Jones is two blocks ahead and I have to catch up.
Confounded idiots.
Now, now, now, now, now, take it easy. You've got arteries too, you know.
Yeah, I know, I know, I know. It's a good idea, though, to blow your top once in a while.
Let's the pressure off. That's Malloy's trouble. He's lost the habit.
I guess so. Of course, if he did regain it, it still wouldn't help anything.
Unless...
Unless what?
You know, the one person he should dominate is the one person he never has.
You mean Mamie. I can understand why.
But that's the problem right there.
That'd take pretty strong provocation, but he might be goaded into it if we could only...
Only think of somebody.
Don't look at me, Jimmy. Don't look at me.
Carue is already a casualty.
No, no, we'd need a brand new stooge.
Not necessarily too bright, of course, but one who could...
Well, Jimmy?
Could be. Miss Parker.
Yes, Dr. Gilday.
Parker, have you ever been out in the woods?
What?
I mean to a summer camp or a lake resort, especially upstate, say,
somewhere around the St. Lawrence River country.
Oh, I guess, yes.
As a matter of fact, I used to go up to Lake Winneka Slamka every summer when I was a girl.
What a memory.
Winneka Slamka. Let's see. Is that anywhere near Cranberry Lake?
About 30 miles northeast, I think.
Oh, I used to have such fun at good old Winneka Slamka.
Oh, you like the country up there.
Oh, I love it. I love it, Dr. Gilday.
When I remember some of those campfire things, the nature study, and the hay rides.
Oh, yes.
They were always at night, of course.
Ah, yes.
And drinks.
Well, that's not exactly what we had in mind, Parker, but nevertheless, I think you're our man.
I'm our man.
Well, what I mean is that I...
I'll be on it, Jimmy, and I'll get it, I'll get it.
Gillespie speaking.
Dr. Gillespie, you've got to do something.
Oh, what's wrong, Carue?
That woman, that Mamie woman, she's coming back here right after dinner, and she's bringing that deed with her.
Indeed.
Somebody has to explain to her that I simply won't buy that property.
I'm afraid there's no hope. If you've got the money, you won't have a chance.
I'll barricade myself up here in my suite.
The locked door'll never stop Mamie.
But, Dr. Gillespie, what can I do?
As far as I can see, there's only one thing, Carue.
Yes?
When she breaks into your suite...
Yes?
Walk out onto the terrace...
Yes?
Then, look down at the street, 14 floors below...
And then?
Jump. Goodbye, Carue.
That ought to wilt his god-deenie for him.
Parker?
You are hereby assigned to Dr. Kildare for a mission which requires the utmost tact, discretion, and bravery beyond the call of duty.
What are you talking about?
Oh, it's really not too complicated, Parker.
We just want you to convince a patient that he should retire to a lake up north.
Oh! Oh, well, that doesn't sound like it.
It's that Malloy family. No, you don't.
Now, Parker...
I heard what happened to Dr. Carue when he got mixed up with him, and I absolutely won't have anything to do...
Parker, are you refusing an assignment?
A nurse isn't responsible for the patient's personal affairs.
When personal affairs affect the patient's health, they are always the concern of the medical profession.
Well, this is an interesting new theory.
This job is a part of your duty as a nurse.
My duty? Why do I have to be the one?
For a very simple reason, Parker. You are expendable.
What?
Now, stand by for briefing. Dr. Kildare, carry on.
Roger.
I tell you, boys, it's darn near giving me another ulcer this last half hour.
I mean, the way this nurse here has been describing that country up north.
Well, now, what have you been up to, Parker?
Oh, I just happened to mention good old Lake Winneka Slonker...
and it just happened that Mr. Malloy was interested in that part of the country.
And so I just... talked, if you didn't know.
Parker, you really shouldn't have discussed anything that may have been upsetting to Mr. Malloy.
Upsetting? She started me remembering things so plain I can see them right now.
Leaves turning red in the fall. The deer coming down out of the hills.
Log blazing in the stone fireflakes.
And don't forget the fish flopping up out of the water.
Yeah, and the ice breaking up in the spring and the smell of coffee and bacon in the morning.
Quite a contrast to a city apartment, an office, a desk.
New city. Answer on telephone, sign on papers, arguing with lawyers, wearing a stiff shirt and a tie.
Seems to me all the men up there wore flannel shirts.
Sure, with the collars open.
Boys, I can't do it. I can't face going back to that job.
Well, it's up to you, Malloy. You're the boss.
You're doggone right. And it's about time I acted that way.
Maybe you'll be crazy about it once she gets used to the idea.
Of course she will.
When we was first married, she used to get a heck of a bang out of cooking and...
roughing it on weekend trips and stuff like that.
I'll make her like it.
Good.
Come in.
Well, well, what have we got here?
An after-dinner conference?
Mamie, shut up.
Daniel!
I'm selling out that cockeyed company and we're moving up to Cranberry Lake.
And if you start any arguing about it, I'm going to bat your ears down.
Why, why Daniel?
If you think I'm going to waste my life around here trying to impress a bunch of stuffed shirts...
and you're out of your cotton-picking mind.
What? I haven't seen you like this for years.
Well, you're going to see me like this from now on.
And another thing, Mamie.
The first morning we're up at the lake, you're going to fix bacon for me...
and I'm going to stand outside and smell it cooking.
Yes, Daniel, but don't you suppose we could both stand outside?
Huh? You, you mean you're not sore about the idea?
When you talk like this?
It's like years ago when we were young and...
Oh, Daniel!
Now, Mamie, not in front of all the...
Hey, where did everybody go to?
Well, Jimmy, I don't know.
Call it the skin of our teeth, lucky break, outside chance.
Anyhow, it worked.
Yes, and Malloy was right about one thing.
She will like it once she gets up there.
Well, personally, I think the least you could do is to give me a little credit for the whole thing.
We should, Parker. You were magnificent.
You deserve the order of the silver syringe with the tea leaf clunter.
And I'll see you get it.
Gentlemen, one moment, please.
Well, what's wrong with Karoo?
Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear, dear, dear.
Pick up your feet, Karoo. Your spats are dragging.
Gentlemen, I want you to look at what you've done to me.
Just look at this.
Well, it's a dollar bill. Find it somewhere, Dr. Karoo.
I did not find it, Dr. Kildare. My wife just gave it to me.
I have made a terrible mistake.
Well, to err is human.
You see, a few hours ago, in order to avoid difficulties with that Mamie woman,
I transferred my entire bank account to my wife's name.
Ah, light begins to dawn.
Now she tells me that's what she's been waiting for for years.
I know she must have hope of some compensation.
From now on, gentlemen, I am to have an allowance of only one dollar a day.
Only one, if you'll pardon the expression, lousy buck a day.
Well, my only advice is to restrain yourself.
Don't be foolish and spend it all in one place.
Spread it round, Karoo. Spread it round.
One dollar a day.
Enough, Dr. Gillespie. This might be rather serious at that.
Frustrating problems such as Dr. Karoo has here could give a man a peptic ulcer.
In just a moment, we will return to the story of Dr. Kildare.
Now, once again, the story of Dr. Kildare, starring Lou Ayres as Dr. Kildare
and Lionel Barrymore as Dr. Gillespie.
In here, Kildare.
Well, that package has finally arrived from Cranberry Lake, Dr. Gillespie.
It's from Dan and Mamie Malloy, remember?
Yes, sir.
The one they mentioned in their letter a couple of weeks ago.
So they finally got around to sending it after all.
No, as a matter of fact, l think they shipped it about the same time they mailed the letter.
lt's evidently been delayed in transit.
What makes you think so, Jimmy?
My nose. There are two dozen lake trout inside that package, two weeks overdue.
The cops are going to be very angry.
The package, two weeks overdue.
lt constitutes something of a problem, all right.
Now, what the tarnation can we possibly do with it?
Unless Parker...
Did you call me, Dr. Gillespie?
Yes, Parker.
l wonder if you'd give this package to one of the orderlies and have him deliver it.
Why, of course. l'd be glad to. Where's it supposed to go?
What was the address, Jimmy?
l don't know, Parker. Have him give it personally to Dr. Carew.
You have just heard the story of Dr. Kildare starring Lou Ayers and Lionel Barrymore.
This program was written by Les Crutchfield and directed by William P. Russo.
Original music was composed and conducted by Walter Schuman.
The supporting cast included Virginia Gregg, Ted Osborne, Sarah Selby and Ed Begley.
Speaking.