User reviews

The Citadel is a fine and inspirational film about a dedicated young doctor and the hardships he has to overcome to see his destiny and move to fulfill it. A lot of the same ground was covered before in Arrowsmith and would be covered again in Not As A Stranger and then in over a dozen or more medical drama shows on television. Stories about medicine and its practice is a genre we will never tire of.

Robert Donat plays the idealistic young doctor who is assigned a number of positions in Great Britain and the story is how he deals with the various situations he encounters. Along the way he picks up a wife in the person of Rosalind Russell.

For an American to review this film probably one should have a knowledge of the British health system and remember this would have been before the days of the current health system of socialized medicine. That system was put in before the post World War II Labour government changed things.

One of his assignments is a coalmining area in Wales and Donat because of his own integrity and commitment manages to make a whole bunch of enemies and has to leave. His assignment is in what might be described as an HMO run by the coal miner's union. He starts doing research in a chronic cough he notices several of the miners have and upsets a whole lot of applecarts both with labor and management. He also isn't so easy with giving sick slips to malingering workers and they don't come to his defense. Not easy at times to be an idealist.

For a while Donat takes an easy road in a wealthy sanitarium that caters to upper class hypochondriacs. Doctors Felix Aylmer and Rex Harrison are getting rich themselves off them. But eventually Donat finds his true calling in research.

Rosalind Russell said that working with Donat was a pleasure, but the film itself wasn't. She and Director King Vidor were the only Americans in this film and she and Vidor took a lot of criticism for taking jobs away from British players. Not like she had anything to say about it, MGM loaned her out there. Still she did her job without a trace of a British accent.

Besides Aylmer and Harrison other noteworthy British players in the cast are Emlyn Williams and Francis L. Sullivan. Williams is one of the local union heads and Sullivan is a blustering boorish lout of a miner who leads the opposition to Donat's research. All of them do fine jobs and Harrison got his first real notice by American audiences in his role.

Because for two generations we Americans have been awash with medical dramas all these situations seem all to familiar to us. That's a jaded point of view. The Citadel is a fine drama and worth seeing.

Very good film from King Vidor with a great look and a mostly excellent cast, take from the classic novel by A Cronin. Robert Donat as Dr. Manson, a highly-principled physician who struggles with the conflicting demands of his profession, provides an uneven central performance. It is sometimes hard to understand his motivations and this is the film's biggest weakness. Rosalind Russell does a fine job as his ever-faithful, often suffering wife. Her performance is perfect, and does provide a moral core to the film. The film wisely avoids a lot of details of the novel that would have muddied up the storyline. (In the book, Dr. Manson has an affair with one of society patients.) The film also boasts some fine performances from a very young Rex Harrison and Ralph Richardson. In fact, Richardson's role as an idealistic, though flawed doctor steals the spotlight every time he is on the screen. The film also has a great look, especially the outdoor scenes of the British villages.

"The Citadel" is one of those circular morality fables - idealistic young man sets out full of good intentions to put the world to right, but, finding his dreams dashed by prejudice and ignorance, throws in his lot with the protection of an easy but dishonest life only to realise the error of his ways through personal tragedy with consequent redemption. A;though stylistically and culturally a world apart, it is thematically a precursor of Mizoguchi's "Sansho Dayu". Made in great Britain in 1938, its MGM backing certainly shows in higher production values than most home grown films of the period - and this in spite of much reliance on back projection of the sort that even the great Carol Reed could not always effectively disguise. One of Hollywood's top directors, King Vidor, invests it with visual quality and, in a part that could have been tailored for Greer Garson, Rosalind Russell makes a surprisingly convincing female lead, supporting the hero throughout his tribulations with every ounce of Garsonian understanding he needs. But it is Robert Donat as the idealistic doctor, who first tries his professional hand in the dark Welsh colliery valley, that is the film's greatest strength. Here was an actor who brought a sense of dignity and integrity to every role he undertook from the earliest Richard Hannay to the Chinese nobleman in "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" which he was brave enough to play when he was literally gasping for breath. His performance in "The Citadel" is not entirely free from cliché but I imagine this was something imposed by the conventions of the period. How else to explain that when he becomes mean and mercenary he suddenly sports a very short and unsympathetic moustache which, if memory serves me right, miraculously disappears for the final scene of redemption. For the rest there is a galaxy of British acting talent to be found among the supporting roles with a brief glimpse of the dignified Nora Swinburne and a few more of a youthful Francis L. Sullivan doing his obese bigot stuff with rather less brains than usual. And as if this was not all, there is "Sexy Rexy" Harrison gracing the Harley Street scene, Cecil Parker playing a particularly odious surgeon who would no doubt be struck off the Medical Register if he were around today and the great Ralph Richardson investing the role of Donat's best friend with just about the right amount of Shakespearean rhetoric that the part will support. All in all a veritable treat provided you suspend just a little bit of disbelief.

A morality tale of medicine, this film brilliantly illustrates the plight of a doctor who truly cares for healing the sick -- yet even finds his patients to be dishonest. Robert Donat is superb in his transformation from a good doctor to a money making doctor for the rich. Roselyn Russell compliments his performance with her own emotional struggle, as she watches her husband all but lose his heart. Brilliant direction from early veteran director King Vidor gives this film a worthy place in film history. This is a must see for any doctor -- IMHO.

This film features an excellent cast, ably led by Robert Donat in a performance that is superior to his marvelous performance one year later in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. As a young doctor, he begins with the highest intentions, gradually becoming cynical and disillusioned. He decides it's better to have money than scruples, with predictable results. Outstanding work as well by Rex Harrison and Rosiland Russell and a very good script. Most recommended.

I thought Robert Donat's portrayal of Andrew Manson, a doctor at first thrilled by the act of healing and then later seduced by the easy money for caring for very wealthy - but more lonely and obsessed than sick - patients was superb. Rosalind Russell at first seemed like an unlikely choice for the female lead as Manson's wife, but she does a first-rate job and makes me believe that she is this quiet yet individualistic Welsh schoolmarm who falls for and marries the young doctor. Their courtship is touching, and the reason for the doctor's proposal to her makes for an awkward but sweet scene between the two. Ralph Richardson, in the years before he was given to largely playing various shades of scoundrel, is here the voice of medical ethics, bawdy though that voice may be.

The film's larger storyline was far from original, and you can pretty much see what direction the plot is going to take at each juncture as the film is neatly subdivided into three parts. I was therefore quite surprised to discover it was Oscar-nominated for its screenplay. I'd recommend this one mainly to watch the outstanding performances of Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, and Ralph Richardson early in their careers as well as a very young Rex Harrison playing a rather devilish doctor in a supporting role.

If you look at my review of the Samuel Goldwyn - John Ford version of ARROWSMITH (1932) I pointed out that the real hard hitting attack on the worst abuses of the training of doctors in the United States and the ambition, greed, and rivalries that mar the medical profession in this country were discarded for the most part when that film was made. Fortunately, six years later, this wonderful film was made by King Vidor on a similarly critical novel by the English writer A. J. Cronin (THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM, HATTER'S CASTLE). Cronin usually was not, like Sinclair Lewis, a social critic - he was a general novelist. But in THE CITADEL he turned perceptive social critic. Like Lewis (in his novel) the society is just as guilty about the malfunctions of the medical profession as the doctors are. But here it was spelled out.

Robert Donat is a newly trained doctor in England, and he initially is quite the idealist as Ronald Colman was as Martin Arrowsmith. Donat's Dr. Andrew Manson tries to fight society for it's own good, but finds it has a habit of hitting back at idealists. Soon, despite the emotional support of his wife Christine (Rosalind Russell), Andrew discovers the pleasures of becoming a prosperous society doctor. He has such wonderful models before him - like Rex Harrison, who talks of the "heart of gold" of his patients in reference to their bank accounts rather than their personalities (Harrison, in his autobiography REX, admitted that he got into serious trouble with his personal doctor after the latter heard that line and confronted him at Rex's next examination).

His best friend and colleague (Dr. Denny - Ralph Richardson) tries to get him to work with a set of idealistic doctors in making a first rate, reasonably priced clinic for the poor and working classes, but Donat rejects the offer. He also turns out to be cold towards the plea of the owner of an Italian restaurant for help for her little daughter (although he is aware of an odd-ball genius who can help the girl with a radical surgery technique). It is only when a tragedy occurs that he is shaken out of his current complacency back to his duty as a healer.

It is regrettable that ARROWSMITH was badly butchered in it's script and production, but it is to be thoroughly commended that this excellent version of THE CITADEL exists to show how the first novel should have been handled.

A drama directed by King Vidor, tells the story of a promising doctor who exchanges his principles for financial stability. It is interesting how it talks about the medical system seeing the corruptions or abuses that exist within it. It is a persistent and clear script, everything unfolds without much mystery.

Robert Dunant gives an amazing performance. His 'Doctor Manson' went through a human evolution, revealing at first those eyes full of light and passion, how they turn off and the spark that reignites them. His courtroom scene only confirms the reason for his nod to the Oscars for 'Best Actor' in 1939.

Quite a strong film towards the end, it has some bravura sequences, including a segment where the protagonist wanders through the streets, the film is however rather tame by standards today, and for the most part, it is not all that brilliant. The fable structure works out for the better by the end, but it is conventional film-making in the along the way. The romantic love interest is quite obvious and the film lacks excitement. It is nevertheless very well acted by Robert Donat throughout, even though his accent - which tends to vary - provides an awkward distraction from the plot. It is certainly okay stuff to watch overall, even with an unnecessary final scene that pushes the messages too far.

This is not one of King Vidor's finest achievements.A pioneer during the silent area(the big parade,the crowd),a great director in the talkies too (our daily bread,duel in the sun,Ruby Gentry,Fountainhead),he does not seem to be that much inspired with AJ Cronin's rather conventional novels.The direction is academic and static,inspiration is absent.

What still appeals in this movie is the interpretation.Robert Donat is a very competent actor,particularly in the first part.Because it's basically a two-part movie:

-The first part,the most convincing, deals with poor parts of England,focusing on the miners' health.Although some scenes seem unlikely (the baby),the depiction of this little town,with its simple life,its teacher (a good Rosalind Russel) who will marry the doctor,its tragedies in the mine,is really endearing.Maybe John Ford will remember it when he films "how green was my valley".

-The second part,in which the hero loses -temporarily- his soul and gains the world-London-.An excellent Rex Harrison-sadly,his part is much too short-"treats" old rich hypocondriacs.And the hero realizes that rich people mean a lot of money.Sometimes it verges on caricature(the hysterical woman).The best scene :the owner of the small Italian restaurant tells Donat about her daughter's health problems ,and he goes on picking out his hors d'oeuvres ,indifferent to the mother's plight.

This seems often dated,but it's worth watching.

A solidly made but stiff and preachy film about a young doctor who must decide between staying true to his professional ethics and the lure of an easy living as a pill peddler to rich people.

King Vidor had a wide range as a director. His work here is middle of the road and unremarkable. The film makes its point, but one wishes it weren't quite so constantly sanctimonious in doing so.

Robert Donat is the doctor and Rosalind Russell, who's not allowed to flex one single comic muscle, is his wife. The film was nominated for four Oscars in 1938 but won nothing: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Donat), and Best Screenplay.

Grade: B+

The Citadel (1938) : Brief Review -

King Vidor's gutsy attempt to expose dishonest doctors in the peak era of legendary biopics on great doctors and scientists. Vidor's The Citadel exposes the medical scams and greed of doctors in dramatic fashion, but what makes this film special is the period when it was made. We had films like "The Story Of Louis Pasteur" (1936), Dr. Ehlrich's Magic Bullet" (1940), "Edison The Man" (1940), and to some extent "The Life Of Emile Zola" (1937), if I may add that film to the list, which told us about the great works these good men had done. Every invention was once called a joke, and every scientist/doctor was once called a madman. But as they say, you have to be mad enough to create history, and that's what these people did. King Vidor's drama even uses the references of these people to prove that having a degree or name in the registrar is not important as long as you are trying to serve humanity through your undying spirit and useful knowledge. The Citadel is about a doctor who tries to make a difference but is oppressed by fraudulent doctors. He continues his struggle and carries out great work, but finds no prosperity. Suddenly, his fate takes a huge turn, and he becomes wealthy, only to forget his motive and sacrifice the passionate doctor in him. This is a basic plot with basic ups and downs that are seen in thousands of films, be it any genre. Yet, The Citadel makes a difference because it remains one of its kind to show the guts to expose corruption in the medical profession. Moreover, it pledges to serve humanity in any way possible and also teaches that maybe money is not what you are looking for as a reason for happiness in your life. Robert Donat is fine, and Rosalind Russell looks cute. Their chemistry works even better with those unbeatable expressions of Russell. Vidor has had many pathbreaking classics in the silent era, but he was the same person who was ready to take on challenges in the talkie era, and this film proves it. A little incomplete, though.

RATING - 7.5/10*

By - #samthebestest.

This has been the second film i've seen of king vidor, the first being duel in the sun and the next being stella dallas. Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell both give good performances, but the last scene of the movie feels tacked on and unnecessary.

Donat was never better, and the supporting cast is excellent all the way with no false notes. The period and its concerns and constraints are captured perfectly. This is the kind of philosophical statement movies that did well in the 30's and 40's but later became a lost art. This is worth seeing by young and old alike.

While watching this version of an A.J. Cronin novel, I couldn't help seeing how closely it compared to a later work by Morton Thompson called "Not As A Stranger." Both films showed how a hard-working, idealistic young man loses his sense of values until a tragic mistake during an operation in which he loses his best friend makes him realize how lost he is. In "Not as a Stranger" the doctor returns to the forgiving arms of his wife. In "The Citadel" there's a more ambiguous scene in which the conflicts are never really resolved and some would find the ending somewhat flawed.

But there's no doubt about the fine performances of Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell. She gives the film the warmth it needs and is the first to sense that he's losing his moral compass when he talks of becoming a society doctor.

Small supporting cast roles by Emlyn Williams, Ralph Richardson and Rex Harrison are a delight to behold. King Vidor directed and got the most out of all the dramatic moments but could have injected some lighter moments in a script that is really much too grim.

Summing up: Uneven melodrama but worth watching for the performances.

This is a wonderful film that deserves to be seen by a wider audience than it currently receives. The screenplay of "The Citadel" is excellent and deals with issues that have a continuing relevance today. Indeed, its theme--the importance of having a strong sense of vocation and integrity --especially among medical doctors, will probably always retain its original significance.

Robert Donat plays a physician who starts out as an idealistic young man working in a poor Welsh coal mining district, but after a series of disappointments he leaves and becomes a cynical member of a London clinic for rich patients, practising the kind of assembly line medicine that is all too common today in many countries. It is likely, however, that the film had a definite influence in countries like the United Kingdom and Canada, which developed publicly-funded medical plans after World War Two.

But even the best universal health care systems can still be prone to such problems as inequities in the availability or quality of treatment and incompetent or uncaring doctors, interested only in making money. Moreover, the issues of professional ethics, individual conscience and personal commitment are applicable to many other occupations, as we've recently seen in the cases of corrupt corporations, such as Enron, which have also abused people's trust.

The other main virtue of this film lies in the acting of Robert Donat. Sir Laurence Olivier once stated that Robert Donat would have been a greater actor than Olivier himself was, had it not been for the chronic asthma that plagued Donat throughout his life and ultimately killed him. That terrible respiratory illness may have inspired him, in "The Citadel," to give one of the most sensitive and moving performances I have ever seen on film, during the scene in which Dr. Manson gets a baby, thought to have died, to breath again.

Donat's complete mastery of what the legendary Konstantin Stanislavsky called "tempo-rhythmn" gives a palpable urgency to this scene that is unforgettable. Watch his delicate and expressive use of his hands while he works to save the infant he's holding. These are the hands of a great actor giving life to a scene, and, at the same time, the hands of a great doctor giving life to a child.

This is acting of the highest order, and if you want to see what the real "Stanislavsky Method" (and not the inferior misinterpretation of it by Lee Strasberg) was all about, Donat's performance in this scene remains as magnificent a demonstration of its goal of emotional truth as I have ever witnessed in many years of watching theatre and film. The rest of his performance is equally brilliant. The changes in his face perfectly convey the degrees by which the former idealist becomes a jaded opportunist, and then. . .

Well, I don't want to be a spoiler and give the whole story away! I highly recommend "The Citadel" to anyone who enjoys films that have real meaning, or who appreciates the true, and truthful, art of acting--acting that is so brilliant and free from any trace of mannerism and artifice that we forget we're watching acting at all. We're seeing life and art unfold together. Thanks to the talent of Robert Donat, form and content become one: his concern with integrity and the film's concern with it simply merge into an inseparable artistic unity. This is a cinematic experience that nobody should miss.

Dr. Andrew Manson, (Robert Donat) is a new doctor who comes to a mining town for his new position and has a hard time starting out, but he soon becomes accepted by the mine union and he obtains a foot hold in the town. However, the union wanted a doctor who is married, because they are also furnishing a large home. Dr. Andrew had met a young lady who was a teacher and all of a sudden, he asks Christine, (Rosalind Russell) if she will marry him, even though he does not even know her name or anything else about her. Dr. Andrew becomes very interested in the problems that the miner's are having with their lungs and starts to make studies with animals and is even able to write a medical journal on the breathing conditions in the mine. This is a very interesting story and Dr. Andrew has many ups and downs to go though before the end of this film.

A look at the medical profession today will convince anyone that this narrative of the conflict a sensitive young physician experiences: whether to serve the not-especially-appreciative poor or the hypocond- riac and over-appreciative wealthy, if he caters to their whims. (At the end one wonders how great a difference there is between these two constituencies.) How many medical school graduates today choose to into small-town or rural general practice, as opposed to pursuing lucrative specialist careers? Robert Donat's effective performance is, as usual, understated; while Rosalind Russell easily matches him in a portrayal that makes one regret that she later became typed in comic roles as a result of superb performances in that genre. A supporting cast that includes the youthful Rex Harrison, Emlyn Williams and Ralph Richardson, all early in their careers and all with perfectly formed characteriza- tions, gives the film depth that one might not have anticipated. This is one of those films that makes one regret the loss of the old studio system, which enabled MGM, with its guaranteed bookings, to make a prestige film on a serious social issue with relatively few melodramatic excesses; and to offset probable box office losses by the studio's many box office bonanza romantic, comic or musical star vehicles. And today??

Robert Donat is Manson, the new doctor's assistant, and right off the bat, he goes up against the local teacher ( Rosalind Russell). When one of the students has measles, her idea of quarantine is to put the student in the corner. and when the town refuses to do anything about the bad water supply, they take matters into their own hands, in a drastic way! so he sets up shop in a new town ( with that same teacher!) and realizes all the miners have that same terrible cough..... TB ! as the wife of the British doctor, Russell plays a much more vulnerable person than in most of her roles. the locals don't understand the research, and they resent the fact that the doctor may be endangering their income, so he's put through the wringer at a hearing. they demand that he give up his little "hobby"; they just want a doctor to hand out pills, not to do any research or really resolve the coughing that everyone has. Manson moves on, and ends up handing out pills to the jetset, and making big bucks. but people start wondering why he didn't continue his study on dust in the lungs. his wife, and another researcher in the field. and when his old friend shows up with a great offer, Manon must decide if he wants the easy, cushy life, or to get back into practice and really help people that need it. it gets pretty hokey near the end... a "voice from above" talks to him about what has happened, and its kind of a let down. personally, i would have had one of his friends or maybe his own wife give that speech.... its ok. entertaining. ethics. decisions. easy money or serious, underpaid research? and then there's a hearing, where his decisions are questioned. Donat only played 21 roles, and this was kind of in the middle of his career. it's okay. directed by King Vidor for MGM-UK . he was nominated FIVE times. and this film itself was nominated for FOUR !

While certainly relevant to these MAGA soaked times where science is, to say the least, viewed with trepidation, this extremely slow paced film from King Vidor is so firmly stuck in the Inspirational Doctor genre (a category only slightly less cloying than the Inspirational Teacher genre to which Robert Donat also made a signal contribution) that its tone soon devolves into the too reverent and too sentimental. Along the way many fine actors are sacrificed to the rather dull proceedings but perhaps none more so than Rosalind Russell, a brilliant comic/dramatic thesp, who is pitifully wasted in the loyal helpmeet role. Give it a C plus.