Dr. Kildare (TV Series) Why Won't Anybody Listen? (1964) User Reviews

Most memorable episode

[childstar413 · 9/10 · 4 June 2006]

This is the only episode of Dr. Kildare that I remember from beginning to end after all these years - that's how much of an impact it made on me.

Claude Rains is a grieving grandfather, whose precious granddaughter has succumbed to an allergic reaction to the anesthesia during a tonsilectomy. He is so hurt and angered by the sight of doctors and nurses laughing with each other in the corridors and elevator of the hospital, while his granddaughter's body is being prepared for the mortuary that he decides to take revenge on the hospital by planting a bomb inside the hospital. It's set on a timer and he calls the hospital to warn them of the impending explosion - but there's no time to evacuate everyone. He even hangs around the hospital to see how the staff reacts.

The most memorable scene of this episode is a very retrospective Raymond Massey, who finally figures out that Rains is the bomber and speaks kindly with him about how the doctors and nurses must include laughter in their daily routine, or else they would succumb to all the sadness surrounding the patients who don't make it. In the end, Rains' character does the right thing, but I won't tell you how exactly it ends.

The acting and writing are first rate in this episode. Although Dr. Kildare was always a quality drama in its day, this particular episode stands out in my memory.

Regards, Kyrila Scully

Outstanding performance by Rains

[16mmRay · 7/10 · 10 July 2009]

This episode of DR. KILDARE features an outstanding performance by Claude Rains - one of his last. Rains would reunite with Richard Chamberlin in the feature film TWILIGHT OF HONOR. Here he is a grandfather, grieving over the loss of his granddaughter and furious over the seemingly callous way that hospital staffers laugh to each other while going about their duties. What makes this episode so special is the depth in which the characters are explored and the literary nature of many of the speeches. Very unlike today's television drama where characters say as little as possible. My one reservation with the episode is the denouement. SPOILER ALERT: I would much rather the explosive Rains creates would not have exploded. It was poorly executed and I think failure would have been very acceptable. Also, Raymond Massey's concluding line of dialogue is far too flimsy and glib and the episode wraps way too abruptly given the horrible climax. Still, what precedes the climax is the real meat of the film and it's excellent. I bought a 16mm print on the strength of Rains' appearance. Imagine my delight when I discovered William Demarest was another guest star, as well as Burt Mustin. All in all, a highly recommended episode.

The Great Claude Rains

[schappe1 · 10/10 · 15 November 2014]

This is one of my all-time favorite episodes of any TV series. (With all the books about TV series, why doesn't somebody do a book lauding the greatest individual episodes?)

It's a good idea for a show and well written but what carries it is Claude Rains, probably the greatest of Hollywood's many great character actors. He plays an old man with a special relationship with his granddaughter, who dies during what should not have been a dangerous operation. While in shock over this, he wanders through the hospital and gets angry because nobody seems to care about the tragedy his family has just endured. People chatter and laugh, oblivious to his feelings. He makes several attempts over a series of days to get what he considers an appropriate response and gets put off by the seemingly disinterested staff and gets angrier and angrier until he decides to do something about it, with tragic results.

Rains makes a meal of this role, one of his greatest, playing all the notes on the piano as he does it, interacting with his son and daughter-in-law, some old friends he likes to hang out with and talking to Kildare, Gillespie and another hospital functionary played by Peter Hansen. The strength of the script is that it neither presents the hospital people as cold or as understanding. They are people trying to do a job as best they can. In other episodes they connect with their patients feelings with great precision, each episode ending with Gillespie summarizing things with warmth and reason. But here they never really connect with Rains' character. He seems to be viewing them- and they him- as if though an opaque shower curtain.

Even Gillepsie's speech about the staff needing to laugh is delivered kind of over Rain's head, as if the good doctor is more interested in removing Rains as a problem by neutralizing his complaint than really empathizing with him.

That's the way it is in life. You can be close to a person but you never really stand in their shoes or see things precisely as they see them. I agree that something a bit more perceptive from Gillespie at the end, (after he and his staff have spent the show failing to be truly perceptive), would have been nice. I suggest that exact conclusion- that we can never really BE someone else or know what it is to be them.