Arrowsmith

1931’s Arrowsmith plays a lot of the same beats that The Story of Louis Pasteur would play a few years later. Perhaps that film, made five years later, was thinking about real-world examples of this subject rather than the purely fictional story here, when it went into production. Pasteur is even name dropped in Arrowsmith, tying real events in to the artificial one of the film. What this does is give the impression that what we are seeing is a biopic in Arrowsmith when the reality is that it is simply based on a fictional novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1925.

That confusion is understandable, too, as the film does little to call attention to that fact. Sure, there are no on-screen titles that claim this is based on a true story or inspired by real events but most people don’t read title cards anyway or would notice the absence of such a disclaimer. Most people would simply assume this is about some part of history that they are unfamiliar with. I, for one, took a moment to look this up just to make sure I wasn’t mistaken because the way the film presents things, this could easily be assumed. 

This is the story of a young medical student, Martin Arrowsmith (Ronald Colman), who introduces himself to noted bacteriologist Dr. Max Gottlieb, wanting to study with him. Though Gottlieb feels that Martin is not ready for that just yet, he is impressed with the man’s determination and honesty and encourages him to take the standard course of study first. Upon graduation, Gottlieb offers him a position as a research assistant but Martin turns him down, having fallen in love with a nurse, Leora (Helen Hayes). The pay as a research assistant wouldn’t be sufficient to raise a family so he accepts a position in the medical field instead, marrying Leora and moving the two to South Dakota. 

In South Dakota, though, he is unhappy with the direction things are going. However, he is intrigued when a former client of his brings up that his cows are dying, something that is sped up by the injections the local veterinarian has been giving them. Martin decides to do some research of his own, taking samples of the cows’ blood and the serum being given them, and testing it out in his kitchen. Eventually he is able to come up with a successful serum of his own that, when tested on the cows proves successful. Reinvigorated by this success, he decides to abandon his practice and join Gottlieb as a research scientist at the well-funded McGurk Institute in New York. Around this time Leora has a miscarriage and is told she cannot have children. Instead, she devotes herself to her husband’s career. 

After a few years, he stumbles onto an antibiotic serum, though he does not understand it nor is he sure how to replicate it. Yet it is able to kill at least one type of germ. Eventually he figures out how to make more, but needs to study its efficacy on other microbes. To do so, he is sent to the West Indies, where a virulent outbreak of bubonic plague has arisen. But in order to properly use the scientific method to test the serum he will have to be compassionless, giving half the people the serum and the other half a placebo and see the difference in the results. Leora insists on coming with him to the West Indies which he relents to, but when he is forced to travel further to a remote location because of the objections to the scientific method by the local government, he has her stay behind for her own safety. 

The Dr. Arrowsmith in this film is a much different character than the one in the novel. Steps were taken to make him more heroic and noble than he was written originally. In the novel he is a philanderer, a serial womanizer. He also remarries in the book after the death of his first wife but all mention of this was removed from the film. In the film we do see a quixotic relationship develop between him and a Mrs. Joyce Lanyon (Myrna Loy), who is stuck in the West Indies with the outbreak of the plague, but because so much of this part of the story was butchered in the translation to the screen it becomes borderline incomprehensible and does her character a great disservice. In the finished product her character is superfluous and a wasted use of the talented actress. 

Helen Hayes was dissatisfied with her character in the final released picture, too, admitting that a lot of what was written into the script was dropped during filming, leaving her character very little development. In the final cut, her character is reduced to a few short scenes where she and Martin are courting, some domestic squabbles, and then left behind while he is off deep in the West Indies. Her whole illness and subsequent death is barely touched upon. There needed to be more of their marriage to add a bit more dimension to this underserved relationship.

This film takes other shortcuts, too. Dr. Oliver Marchand (Clarance Brooks) offers Martin the guinea pigs needed to test his serum in the West Indies. Later, though, Oliver is sent by Martin to check on Lorna’s welfare. When Oliver calls him from the mainland to inform him of her death, though, he, too, is sick and dies abruptly off-screen. He’s barely able to say anything to Martin before we cut to the dangling phone receiver and silence on his end. It’s a sad moment in the story but is undercut by how abruptly it is edited into the film. 

A a film, Arrowsmith is merely adequate. There are good moments scattered throughout and it is never dragging, but it also keeps its characters at arms length, partially due to the evisceration of the source novel. John Ford was offered the directing reins on the condition he give up drinking during production and it feels like he got in a hurry to finish it so he could get back to the bottle. Either that or he couldn’t stay on the wagon during the filming. Whatever the reason, this feels like a compromised film for a lot of reasons, not just the ones I’ve already listed. Still, it is watchable, it’s just not as powerful a film as this material could have been. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Outstanding Production: Samuel Goldwyn

Best Adaptation: Sidney Howard

Best Art Direction: Richard Day

Best Cinematography: Ray June

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Release Date: December 7, 1931

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard Bennett, and Myrna Loy

Directed by: John Ford