I've been watching the recently-released DVD of Dr. Kildare's 5th season and have had so many opinions I decided to organize them and post them.Here is a summary of the season organized into "stories".
Episodes: Behold the Great Man A Life for a Life Web of Hate Horizontal Hero
James Mason plays a famous surgeon who is brilliant but egotistical. He and Dr. Kildare are at loggerheads over the treatment of a recently deceased patient. Mason operated with a narrow chance to save her and it failed. She would have lived perhaps 4 more months without the operation, which was to remove a "mass", (I assume a cancerous tumor). Mason took the chance to give her the rest of her life. Kildare wanted to give her the four months.
Then a badly burned man is brought into the hospital. He's a seminary student who has lost faith and tried to burn down a church. Mason is called in to treat his burns and performs a minor miracle to save the guy, who keeps asking about God. He's been called in from a party and his drunken wife, (Margaret Leighton makes a scene. He has another run-in with Kildare. Mason drives off in anger and gets in an accident that leaves him paralyzed below the waist.
The story now becomes about Mason's recovery, which has several stages, including euphoria and depression. The burn victim will need an operation and Mason eventually recovers enough to be able to perform it from a special wheelchair. Kildare, who has been placed in charge of his care, has promoted this to give Mason a goal to work toward and convince him that he can still be useful. But, after the heights of that, he emotionally crashes and for the first time, asks for his wife's help in adjusting to his new life.
It's all very dramatic and well-acted but I did wonder if this famous surgeon would be the one to be called in to treat a man for his burns- one who couldn't be operated on until later. It also seemed to me that the patient's constant questions about God were part of the reason Mason was upset the night of the accident. It seemed more than just the problems with his wife and Kildare. But the writer never really tied those threads together. The story itself is pretty contrived and melodramatic but it's still a strong start to the great experiment of the 5th season.
Episodes: Behold the Great Man A Life for a Life Web of Hate Horizontal Hero
James Mason plays a famous surgeon who is brilliant but egotistical. He and Dr. Kildare are at loggerheads over the treatment of a recently deceased patient. Mason operated with a narrow chance to save her and it failed. She would have lived perhaps 4 more months without the operation, which was to remove a "mass", (I assume a cancerous tumor). Mason took the chance to give her the rest of her life. Kildare wanted to give her the four months.
Then a badly burned man is brought into the hospital. He's a seminary student who has lost faith and tried to burn down a church. Mason is called in to treat his burns and performs a minor miracle to save the guy, who keeps asking about God. He's been called in from a party and his drunken wife, (Margaret Leighton makes a scene. He has another run-in with Kildare. Mason drives off in anger and gets in an accident that leaves him paralyzed below the waist.
The story now becomes about Mason's recovery, which has several stages, including euphoria and depression. The burn victim will need an operation and Mason eventually recovers enough to be able to perform it from a special wheelchair. Kildare, who has been placed in charge of his care, has promoted this to give Mason a goal to work toward and convince him that he can still be useful. But, after the heights of that, he emotionally crashes and for the first time, asks for his wife's help in adjusting to his new life.
It's all very dramatic and well-acted but I did wonder if this famous surgeon would be the one to be called in to treat a man for his burns- one who couldn't be operated on until later. It also seemed to me that the patient's constant questions about God were part of the reason Mason was upset the night of the accident. It seemed more than just the problems with his wife and Kildare. But the writer never really tied those threads together. The story itself is pretty contrived and melodramatic but it's still a strong start to the great experiment of the 5th season.
