Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
John Huston co-wrote the screenplay and won an Oscar for it for this bio-pic from Warner. Dr. Paul Ehrlich, played brilliantly by Edward G. Robinson, draws heat from his peers when he decides to try and find a cure for the morally incorrect syphilis. It's rather shocking to find out that Robinson never received an Oscar nomination and it's even more shocking after watching his brilliant work here, which is perhaps the greatest I've seen from him. He has to age several decades here but Robinson nails each stage of the doctor's life from his early days working in a hospital to his final days dealing with a trial over his syphilis serum. It's amazing to see how much Robinson transformed himself because he looks and acts unlike anything I've seen him in. He has a wig on, a strange beard and right from the start you see him as the doctor and not Robinson. There's no question the actor will always be remembered for his role in Little Caesar but his work here is so much better. The studio went all out and gave him a terrific group of supporting players including Otto Kruger, Ruth Gordon, Donald Crisp, Maria Ouspenskaya, Henry O'Neill and Donald Meek. The screenplay is very ambitious in that it tries to cover various aspects of Ehrlich's life and for the most part it works, although I thought that a few segments were rushed over so that the film could get onto other aspects of his life. The final trial didn't come off too well but it did make for a nice payoff through Robinson's touching final scene inside the courtroom.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
John Huston co-wrote the screenplay and won an Oscar for it for this bio-pic from Warner. Dr. Paul Ehrlich, played brilliantly by Edward G. Robinson, draws heat from his peers when he decides to try and find a cure for the morally incorrect syphilis. It's rather shocking to find out that Robinson never received an Oscar nomination and it's even more shocking after watching his brilliant work here, which is perhaps the greatest I've seen from him. He has to age several decades here but Robinson nails each stage of the doctor's life from his early days working in a hospital to his final days dealing with a trial over his syphilis serum. It's amazing to see how much Robinson transformed himself because he looks and acts unlike anything I've seen him in. He has a wig on, a strange beard and right from the start you see him as the doctor and not Robinson. There's no question the actor will always be remembered for his role in Little Caesar but his work here is so much better. The studio went all out and gave him a terrific group of supporting players including Otto Kruger, Ruth Gordon, Donald Crisp, Maria Ouspenskaya, Henry O'Neill and Donald Meek. The screenplay is very ambitious in that it tries to cover various aspects of Ehrlich's life and for the most part it works, although I thought that a few segments were rushed over so that the film could get onto other aspects of his life. The final trial didn't come off too well but it did make for a nice payoff through Robinson's touching final scene inside the courtroom.