Dr. Christian Meets the Women (1940) User Reviews

I'd Love To Spend A Hour With You

[boblipton · 6/10 · 13 February 2019]

I'm sure he'd met some of them before, but in this installment in the series, Jean Hersholt finds his peaceful town invaded by Rod La Rocque. Rod is a huckster of health and fitness. He comes in, sweeps the matrons off their feet, promising them beauty, if they'll only eat raw spinach and lemon for breakfast while he sneaks off to his room to eat pie.

It's a fine performance of oblivious comedy mixed with a dash of uncaring evil. Naturally Dr. Christian objects that the one-size-fits-all plan is risky. He's joined in this objection by Edgar Kennedy. Lelah Tyler, Kennedy's wife, is putting up La Rocque, which means Kennedy must put up with him, his inedible diet and La Rocque's invasion. Kennedy does his slow burn very slowly in this one.

All in all, it's a well-made programmer with some wise old pros in front of and behind the camera: a good way to spend an hour.

A warm, nice little comedy

[howardeismanart · 7/10 · 5 January 2017]

This is a mild, pleasant comedy made with a low budget. The Dr, Christian character, played by former bad guy, Jean Hersholt, was an American icon. There was also a Dr, Christian popular radio program with Jean Hersholt. The Dr. Christian character was a kindhearted, wise, even tempered, chubby, soft spoken man trying to spread as much good as he possibly could in his small community while tolerating fools and villains. Not the type likely to become a popular hero today.

This is a warm comedy performed by professionals. Hersholt personifies the Dr. Christian character.

Edgar Kennedy does his great slow burn, Rod La Roque is perfect as a smooth talking, glib, self centered salesman for a health racket. Indeed, some of the stuff he is peddling is still a problem today. Veda Ann Borg plays it straight as an exercise instructor Too bad she wasn't allowed to do the brassy, poorly educated, dyed blond character which has made her famous to this day.

When this was released, people could get snug in a neighborhood theater and smile through a movie like this, absorb the serious message it contained, and then watch the main feature. All of it adding up to a good nights entertainment. For those raised on contemporary movies, It has to be hard for them to understand the popularity of movies like this one. Movies today sell spectacle, dazzle, glitter, comic book action, wild fantasy, and deafening sound. Thus, I suspect that young people will find this movie too slow.

Too bad

The Health Of His Community

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 14 April 2015]

Jean Hersholt is guarding the health of his community against a diet doctor quack. 75 years after Dr. Christian Meets The Women we still have diet doctors, they've multiplied like locusts.

Dr. Christian meets up with Frank Albertson who has returned to town. Formerly a reporter, Albertson is now doing advance work for quack diet doctor Rod LaRocque who with his shapely assistant Veda Ann Borg sells diet and exercise, but also is selling pills laced with amphetamines which he has no right to do. LaRocque's a total fraud, he has Frank and Veda Ann bringing him all kinds of 'forbidden' foods.

When young Lynn Merrick gets sick it's Dr. Christian who gets out of his own sick bed to try and save her from that diet. Shades of Karen Carpenter.

Edgar Kennedy uses his slow burn comedy to good advantage as his wife Lelah Tyler invites LaRocque to stay at their place. When the local scoutmaster brings his troop in for a diet talk, marching band and all Kennedy truly loses it. As for Tyler she's in a role where she's a Mary Boland lite.

A good Dr. Christian story about a still serious topic.

It takes a real doctor to expose the hypocrisy of a real quack.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 14 August 2018]

When you are a doctor in a small town, you know pretty much everybody and their entire medical history, so when an intruder claiming to be a professor of new medicine arrives and has people changing their diets and doing exercises that practically makes them bedridden, you will instantly notice. That's the newest challenge for Jean Hersholt's Dr. Christian in the fourth of the series, and the good doctor is in danger of losing all of his female patients thanks to the phony charmer Rod LaRocque who has practically all of the women in the palm of his hands, much to the consternation of many of their husbands, especially grocer Edgar Kennedy. His wife (Lelah Tyler) is the leader of these women and when Dr. Christian confronts them and LaRocque at a meeting to tell them that the vacant seats indicate a number of sick participants in the program, Tyler declares a walk-out on Dr. Christian's practice, leading him to become sick himself over his inability to convince them of their error in judgment. When Tyler and Kennedy's own daughter (Lynn Merrick) gets sick, it's time for the truth to be revealed, and time for LaRocque to get a taste of the medicine he wanted to give the noble Dr. Christian!

One of the most important entries in the short-lived series shows the dangers of untested forms of medical treatment and the cult like practices of quacks like LaRocque who is so passive/aggressively charming, it would be difficult to resist him if you were vulnerable to his flatteries and special attentions. For Edgar Kennedy, it's a chance to act with out his traditional slow burn, even though he gets irritated with wife Tyler on several occasions. Those reactions are more dramatic than comical, and the same goes for the usually funny Maude Eburne whose concern for the ailing Hersholt is touching. Dorothy Lovett is also back as Dr. Christian's loyal nurse, and there are some fine character performances as well by Frank Albertson, Veda Ann Borg and Phyllis Kennedy.

A 1940 Film That Couldn't Be More Up-to-Date

[lawprof · 8/10 · 20 December 2004]

As I tell my law students every semester, my favorite verse is from the Book of Harry. That's Harry S Truman and the quotation is "The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know." This minor gem from 1940 - "Dr. Christian Meets the Women" -is one of a six-film series starring Jean Hersholt as the kindly, gentle, wise, small-town physician who ministers to ailments physical and emotional. Christian never seems to collect a fee and there's no time spent dealing with HMOs. Malpractice litigation? That occupational hazard doesn't exist.

Christian encounters a visitor to his neat, friendly town, a "professor" who hard sells weight loss programs with the aid of a shapely assistant. He's only interested in distaff clients. Projecting himself as a man of science, he oozes the odor of a hucksterism that may be more sophisticated today but ain't no different in scope and end purpose.

Dr. Christian becomes increasingly disturbed as the many women who have been his long-time patients succumb to the charm and blandishments of this fellow who combines an exercise regimen with diet to cater to the women's feverish demand for weight loss. Oh, and he also "prescribes" (he's not a medical doctor) a substance from the earlier part of the last century that apparently isn't known today. I wrote down the name: amphetamines.

Christian, in desperate need of a vacation and falling ill himself, complains that he's never had so many townsfolk ill at the same time and it's all because of the draconian regimen eagerly, actually fanatically, pursued by the women who, for the moment at least, abandon the good doctor for the miracle-promising professor.

Change some of the dialog, re-make the movie in color and have the women desperate to land muscular mates while pursuing exciting careers and "Dr. Christian Meets the Women" would be ready for today's MTV and theater market.

All the Dr. Christian movies are better than mere "B" second features but this one resonates with an almost embarrassing relevance. Yep, Harry Truman had it right for sure.

Thanks to Alpha for releasing this flick for a mere $5.99. It's worth acquiring as are the other Dr. Christian tales.

7/10

Surprisingly timely and entertaining today.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 2 February 2010]

Jean Hersholt (for whom the Oscar's Humanitarian award was named) is back for another installment of the Dr. Christian series. Once again, he plays a super-dedicated small-town doctor in this relatively low-budget film. Yet, despite its budget, the film is well written, acted and very timely (even today) and is well worth seeing.

Dr. Christian's town is beset by a bunch of hucksters who are peddling a weight-loss program. Back in 1940, there was even less regulation of these jokers and 'the Professor' (which, you assume does NOT imply a doctorate in anything) peddles irresponsible one-size-fits-all diets on a town eager to be fleeced by this charlatan. Dr. Christian is alarmed, as you can't just prescribe the exact same diet to everyone--regardless of their health and amount of weight they could stand to lose. However, back in those days, there wasn't much a doctor could do but warn his patients--and Christian's patients are so taken by the charismatic weight-loss guru that they ignore the doctor. Eventually, however, Christian's predictions come true--and people are seriously hurt in the process.

While there was less regulation of diets back in the time this film was made, the desire to lose weight and follow insanely quirky diets is as strong as ever today. The same one-size-fits-all mentality still prevails and it would sure be nice if people would listen to the doctor's advice--and consult a physician first before doing anything drastic! In addition, the movie managed to make all this entertaining and not preachy--like a public service film that doesn't feel like you are being educated in the process! Nice job--and the film earns an 8 from me--it's that well done and a better example of what a high quality B-movie can be.