A medical researcher is sent to a plague outbreak, where he has to decide priorities for the use of a vaccine.
Acting
Helen Hayes breaks your heart in about twelve total minutes of screen time.
Direction
Ford's plague sequence staging is surprisingly modern and brutal.
Cinematography
Those shadowy laboratory shots? Pure pre-code noir before noir existed.
Director
John Ford
Ronald Colman
Dr. Martin Arrowsmith
Helen Hayes
Leora Tozer Arrowsmith
Richard Bennett
Gustav Sondelius
A.E. Anson
Professor Max Gottlieb
Clarence Brooks
Dr. Oliver Marchand
Alec B. Francis
Twyford
Claude King
Dr. Tubbs
Bert Roach
Bert Tozer
Myrna Loy
Joyce Lanyon
Russell Hopton
Terry Wickett
David Landau
State Veterinarian
Lumsden Hare
Sir Robert Fairland
Erville Alderson
Pioneer (uncredited)
Ward Bond
Cop (uncredited)
Beulah Bondi
Mrs. Tozer (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Sinclair Lewis hated this adaptation so much he tried suppressing it; the Nobel laureate lost to John Ford's ego.
This is peak 1931 'men must sacrifice everything for science' propaganda — the same year women got the vote, Hollywood said 'but what about HIS pain?'
US
