A doctor’s career careens from idealism to materialism and back again in King Vidor’s compelling The Citadel.
The Production: 4/5
A doctor’s career careens from idealism to materialism and back again in King Vidor’s The Citadel, an engrossing if somewhat predictable melodrama that offers a handsome production, outstanding direction that includes some quite harrowing sequences, and a handful of first-rate performances featuring a group of well-known faces from the golden age of motion pictures.
Humble, idealistic Dr. Andrew Manson (Robert Donat) begins his career in a Welch mining town where a mysterious cough that many of the miners are afflicted with lead Manson to a theoretical diagnosis of tuberculosis. When the entire village resents his findings preferring older diagnoses that kept them working with quack remedies, Manson and his young wife Christine (Rosalind Russell) pull up stakes and head for London where he hopes his clientele is more willing to trust newer medical treatments. While he struggles at first to get his practice going, a chance encounter with old school chum Dr. Frederick Lawford (Rex Harrison) opens doors to a medical practice where wealthy hypochondriacs are willing to pay any price to indulge their alleged symptoms. Manson quickly succumbs to the wealth and privilege this new approach to medicine earns him, but a personal tragedy snaps him back to reality and an eagerness to practice real medicine again.
Ian Dalrymple, Frank Wead, and Elizabeth Hill collaborate on the film’s screenplay adapted from the novel by A.J. Cronin. The narrative makes it quite easy to watch Dr. Manson’s journey through its various highs and lows, guided by the firm, sure hand of director King Vidor who was Oscar-nominated for his work here. Among the more impressively helmed sequences are a traumatic excursion deep into an unstable mine shaft with the doctor trying to save a man trapped and risking his own life in the process, several interviews in front of a board of select persons judging the doctor’s qualifications including a climactic one where his medical license hangs in the balance, and a dire operation where Manson’s best friend Dr. Philip Denny (Ralph Richardson) is the patient at the mercy of a doctor who hasn’t practiced real medicine for years. There’s a subplot with a society flirt (Penelope Dudley-Ward) making a rather obvious play for the married doctor, but, thankfully, that story is only briefly touched on before the plot moves on to something more interesting. The movie begins with a statement clarifying the studio’s tremendous regard for the medical profession and hoping that their representation of certain medical practices is not seen as reflective of the entire medical field, but even today it’s clear that certain physicians and practices continue to subscribe to the kinds of materialistic goals that certain of the doctors in this film make a priority.
Robert Donat earned his first Academy Award nomination for his performance in this film, and his light Scottish brogue and earnest devotion to his patients quickly earn our respect and admiration making his turn toward the avaricious side of medicine not a deal breaker during the film’s middle section. He also handles several lengthy monologues with expected expertise. Rosalind Russell is demurer here than she usually played in her films of this era showing us a different side of her talent. As two friends of Manson’s with quite differing goals, Ralph Richardson particularly and Rex Harrison both do notable work. Emlyn Williams softly plays the head of the miners’ collaborative, and Francis L. Sullivan is equally memorable as the miners’ most outspoken representative. Mary Clare is lovely as a local restauranteur who gives the Mansons credit when they’re down on their luck.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film’s original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1 is faithfully rendered in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Mostly, the picture is stunning to look at with a sharp, detailed picture, and excellent grayscale rendering which features rich black levels and clean, crisp whites. There are one or two missing frames in one sequence midway through the film which are rather startling when they occur, but otherwise the image is all one could wish for a film of this age. The movie has been divided into 26 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix offers very good fidelity for a movie of this period. Dialogue has been beautifully recorded and has been combined with Louis Levy’s music and the appropriate sound effects into a most effective sound package. There are no problems at all with age-related hiss, pops, crackle, or flutter.
Special Features: 3/5
Live Action Shorts (SD): two 1938 one-reel “historical mysteries” directed by Jacques Tourneur – The Ship That Died (10:09) and Strange Glory (10:37).
The Daffy Dog (7:02, HD): 1938 Porky Pig animated short.
Theatrical Trailer (4:36, SD)
Overall: 4/5
Nominated for four 1938 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, King Vidor’s The Citadel offers compelling viewing even more than eighty years after its initial release. The Warner Archive Blu-ray release presents sterling picture quality and solid sound to give this dramatic story added heft. Recommended!
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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