Dr. Cook's Garden (1971 TV Movie) User Reviews

Bing's only screen death

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 5 April 2004]

I'm sure that this was not intended to be Bing Crosby's swan song to feature films, but that's what it turned out to be.

Crosby is cast against type here. He's the kindly old country doctor in this story who lives and practices in a Norman Rockwell like small town. But Crosby is the town's terrible secret. Unbeknownst to the residents, old Doctor Cook has been euthanizing those he feels have no positive contribution to make. The old mostly, but even younger ones like a crippled child whose medical bills are breaking his parent's finances. A young colleague, Frank Converse, discovers what he's doing and the rest you have to see for yourself.

It's an interesting vehicle for a man who was known as THE Catholic entertainer. And it has Bing's one and only screen death in his career. Solid acting by Bing and the cast.

Rare Subject- Euthanasia

[DKosty123 · 7/10 · 12 October 2006]

Bing Crosby shines in this ABC TV Movie of the week. He is the kindly old Dr. Leonard Cook of a small town. He gets a new young doctor fresh out of medical school to be his assistant. The young guy is shocked when he notices that it appears Dr Cook is into everybody's business in the small town & then appears to kill people who are giving others in town or in their personal lives problems. This is one of the earlier TV films to deal somewhat with the problem of man controlling too much technology & abusing it because he can.

Best sequence of this for me- when the young Doctor finds Dr Cook having a heart attack & in need of his Nitro pills to stay alive. He decides not to give Dr Cook his pills he needs acting as judge & jury to let him die because of what he is doing. Dr. Cook (Crosby) as he is there prone, looks up to the young doctor & says "What I am doing is not so bad, see because now your doing it yourself!" What a great way for old Dr. Cook to put down the self righteous young Doctor, who is finding it all to easy to do to Dr. Cook what he is condemning him for himself. For a TV film, solid entertainment on a serious subject.

Now on You Tube - https://youtu.be/z5fGZuJltzo and https://youtu.be/xD6McxAFyyw

Pretty good for a 1971 TV movie

[mls4182 · 7/10 · 18 March 2022]

Bing is effective. The plot is spread a little thin as the beginning is drawn out with a lot if inane dialogue.

The real treat is seeing how stunning Blythe Danner and Frank Converse were in their prime.

Bing's Darkest Character

[theowinthrop · 9/10 · 21 September 2006]

It is Bing Crosby's acting swan song, and a worthy one. Except for his brilliant recovering alcoholic stage star in THE COUNTRY WIFE, and an occasional display of anger in his other films (note his speech at Emperor Franz Josef about the puppies at the end of the THE EMPEROR WALTZ), Bing is always notable for his wonderful even temper. Dr. Cook gave him his chance of pulling out the stops.

Burl Ives had played the role briefly on stage, and actually got good reviews (the play seemed too slight to the critics, and to New York audiences). The story is this: Frank Converse is Dr. Jimmy Tennyson, who is returning to his small home town to work with the man whom he always admired the most, Dr. Leonard Cook (Bing). Cook is the ideal small town doctor (reminiscent of his young doctor who goes to the New England Town to assist Barry Fitzgerald in WELCOME STRANGER). He is warm and kindly, and full of common sense. He also has a green thumb, being usually in his personal garden when not with his patients. So Converse is very happy to be working with his emotional/educational mentor.

But in now working closer with Cook, Dr. Tennyson begins to notice that there are some odd deaths that accrue in the town. People will ask Cook to come in for some minor cold or something like that, and will be dead in twenty four hours. Tennyson soon begins to notice that the people who die so suddenly are not really mourned. His girlfriend, Janey Raustch (Blythe Danner), points out that many of them were notoriously bad tempered neighbors, cruel to their families or to pets or other people, or drunkards who made life hellish for others, and so they aren't missed. Eventually Tennyson starts questioning Cook, and after some attempts at shrugging off Tennyson's questions Cook begins to admit that the not-to-loved departed were possibly sped on their way with Cook's assistance.

Tennyson is (naturally) astounded to hear that Cook has been poisoning (with overdoses of morphine and other drugs) these patients. Cook looks upon the town as a grander version of his garden, and these bad people as the equivalent of the weeds that he removes from his real garden.

The tension is the story is how Tennyson finds the growing number of dead "bad" people affecting his own conscience, and how his uncertainty is effecting his relationship with Cook, who is beginning to wonder if Tennyson is another weed to remove.

SPOILER COMING UP: Cook does go after Tennyson, but suffers a heart attack (his health has been in decline for awhile). As he is dying, Tennyson runs over with Cook's medication and can give it to him, but hesitates and realizes that Cook may not deserve to live if he is a murderer. Cook sees the hesitation, and (with a quiet irony) says to Tennyson that now he sees how really easy what Cook has been doing is. And Cook dies after saying this.

Crosby acting sinisterly is quite a novelty for his fans, and his final moments include chasing Converse with intent to kill him. It was quite a performance, matched by Converse and Danner (who gradually realizes what Converse has discovered). This television film has not been shown in many years, but if it is revived one day catch it. It was Bing's last moment to shine on screen.

Perhaps this film inspired Kervorkian?

[SanDiego · 22 September 2000]

One of the amazing films of the ABC Tuesday Night at the Movies, Bing Crosby starts out as a Kervorkian style doctor but crosses the line as he begins to make judgments on who in his small town must live or die based on their conduct. Chilling and foretelling.

Satisfying Thriller

[billbadford · 7/10 · 20 October 2021]

Even though we learn the obvious relatively early on, there is still some decent suspense watching it all play out. Crosby is excellent in this dramatic role, and some of the dialogue between he and Converse is thoughtfully written. Much of the finale is haphazard, but the irony wraps it all up neatly.

This is one of many first-rate movies that were made for TV on ABC at the time.

Bing Crosby's ultimate made for TV movie

[vfrickey · 8/10 · 16 June 2013]

Bing Crosby Productions made a number of what used to be called "thumbsuckers," movies with a philosophical context (not necessarily "message movies," although some of them were).

Dr. Cook's Garden is one of those and stars Bing Crosby himself. It features Frank Converse as Jimmy Tennyson, a young doctor going back to his roots in a quaint New England town. Naturally, he visits the town doctor, Dr. Leonard Cook, played by Crosby in one of his better, certainly darker, portrayals.

During his visit, Dr. Tennyson notices people dropping dead who didn't seem to have a life-threatening condition... except they often weren't nice to know or particularly decent people. There also seems to have been an unusually sharp distribution between the healthy, thriving population of the town and some sickly kids and adults who die sooner than Tennyson would have predicted.

His curiosity piqued, Tennyson noses around Cook's clinic. In the dispensary, where drugs and other supplies for the clinic are kept, he notices an unusually large variety and number of poisons... and Dr. Cook knows that Tennyson noticed.

Suddenly. Tennyson begins having close calls, then, in a climactic picnic (just Tennyson and Cook in a bucolic meadow), the two men have it out. Tennyson has a sandwich with a strong mustard which conceals a dose of cyanide, and when it begins to take effect, Dr. Cook reveals his secret and offers Tennyson a chance not to die if he accepts Cook's method of keeping his little town decent. Tennyson accepts, Cook gives him an antidote for the poison, and a tense relationship ensues, neither man trusting the other.

Eventually Cook himself has a heart attack; Tennyson has the nitroglycerin pills that CAN save Cook... who realizes he's about to be the latest weed pruned from Dr. Cook's Garden.

Crosby gives this character a calm but very dark nonchalance about the deaths he inflicts; it's a side of Bing Crosby I'd never seen back in 1971 when I first saw this film.

While Bing Crosby did produce "message movies" for TV, this isn't one of them. No easy answers are in the plot, and certainly nothing that smacks of Crosby's strong Catholic belief in real life. It's a very quiet, unassuming character study, and a mystery good enough to have been in the running for an Edgar Award.

I can recommend this, if you can find it. It's unusually thought- provoking for a Bing Crosby Production, worthy of that time in the history of television when at least some producers were smarting from FCC commissioner Newton Minow's judgment of television as a "wasteland," and trying to make worthwhile scripts. Watch it, you won't regret it.

I wouldn't be going this doctor's way under any circumstance.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 3 August 2018]

A country doctor playing God in order to keep his quaint New England town practically perfect becomes an unforgettable late acting role for Bing Crosby who with a very trim figure and an imposing beard seems to be playing a part that might have fit Boris Karloff back in the 1930's or 40's. At times, he even resembles his old singing and dancing partner, Fred Astaire ("Holiday Inn"/"Blue Skies"), but until you hear his speaking voice, it's difficult to even realize that it is Bing Crosby, the all-American great crooner who dominated the pop charts in the 1930's and introduced many classic American songs. There's no singing for Crosby here, but his character better be singing "Nearer My God to Thee" as he deals with his conscience in taking the lives of some of the town's less likable citizens. As mentor to a young medical student (Frank Converse), he is thrilled with Converse returns for a visit, but it will be very difficult for both of them when Converse begins to investigate the sudden deaths of various patient's of Crosby's, including the town's recently deceased wealthy miser who wouldn't lift a finger to do anything to improve their community.

A very beautiful Blythe Danner is an old classmate of Converse's, and the daughter of Crosby's latest patient/victim, an old man whose breathing problems lead to an obvious mercy killing. Converse sneaks into Dr. Cook's files and finds out the truth about his one letter reference system, meaning one thing allegedly for the beautiful flowery plants in his gorgeous garden, and another thing for his patients. Crosby utilizes his customary charm to make the character likable, but he holds back in other areas to give the character a little bit of sinister mystery which when it explodes reveals this character to be quite diabolical in a passive/aggressive manipulative way. Little bits of detail show other hypocrisies of small town living, especially a rather absurd church sermon where the preacher utilizes a rather judgmental comparison of other towns to this one, calling it practically perfect. But like Peyton Place, beautiful in the opening credits, all that glitters isn't always gladiolas, and like King's Row (another film where a doctor with a dark secret mentored a younger man), it is not necessarily the best place to raise your children, as the town sign in "King's Row" sign, that is, until a new doctor comes in to treat their patients correctly.

Marcus Welby from Hell

[Tarasicodissa · 8/10 · 8 December 2006]

A very popular series of the time was 'Marcus Welby' where the all wise, all knowing doctor educated his patients out of their pride, prejudice, and folly in resisting his counsel. The doctor is wise. The doctor is all knowing. The doctor is only here to help.

1971, and indeed, the era of the Warren Court represented a high water mark of the notion that we can have a perfect society if we just turn loose experts and therapists guided by the social sciences on our problems. The intelligentsia then were absolutely certain of the ability of the social sciences to rehabilitate all criminals, to end poverty, to end racial inequality, to make a perfect land. All we had to do was use the tools of the social sciences to fix the 'root causes'.

This film was a marvelous criticism of that zeitgeist. Dr Cook is the ultimate therapist. He is only there to help.

Crosby's last film is an amazing stretch...and one that took me by surprise!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 2 March 2017]

When kindly old Dr. Cook (Bing Crosby) is ailing, Dora contacts Dr. Tennyson (Frank Converse). After all, he is a young doctor who grew up in the same town and she is worried about Dr. Cook's heart. Naturally, Tennyson comes and offers to help out...but Cook assures him everything is fine. However, when he is home visiting, Tennyson notices something very odd...quite a few folks in the town have died from coronaries in recent years and none of them had cardiac histories. What's more telling...all the dead folks were jerks! Someone might be thinning the garden, so to speak...as the jerks do seem to have very short life expectancies! And, if this IS the case, kindly Dr. Cook is the likely culprit. This makes it tough...as Tennyson adores the man and owes him so much.

This film is worth seeing just because it's Crosby's last film--and he was an amazingly underrated actor. It also worth seeing because it is a very compelling film--much like the classic Warner Brothers film, "Kings Row". However, with "Dr. Cook's Garden", you have a nice, well-meaning killer doctor instead of the angry, vengeful doc in "Kings Row". He kills because the folks he bumps off are vicious, vile people who he simply deems unworthy to live!! However, once discovered, he's apparently willing to keep killing just to keep his secret...which doesn't exactly make him like Mother Theresa! I was impressed that Crosby would choose such a difficult role instead of playing something nice or safe.

Overall, this is a terrific installment of "The ABC Movie of the Week". A great story and filled with unusual twists! And, with a really cool ending!

"You can have a perfect garden. Why not a perfect town?"

[JasonDanielBaker · 15 January 2019]

A barely recognizable Bing Crosby (bearded, sans pipe and golfing outfit) portrays Dr. Leonard Cook, a seemingly kindly old small-town physician with a thriving practice in the idyllic town of Greenfield, Connecticut. His young protege Dr.Jim Tennyson (Converse) returns to town for a visit having completed his residency.

Cook, a widower, is the only doctor in town. With no family left he tends to people in Greenfield like they are his kin. After more than forty years as general practitioner he has delivered most of the residents at birth and henceforth taken them on as patients.

As a county selectman (A town councillor) he also puts in time to tend to community improvements. The two responsibilities, and his avid interest in gardening percolate into a warped social engineering project.

Spoiler alert. With full knowledge of medical procedure and the lesser deference that comes from experience and personal confidence Tennyson's eyes are opened to the malfeasance of Dr.Cook - his hero. Taking his personal philosophy a step further, Cook actively causes deaths of patients whose respective expirations serve the greater good as Cook sees it.

Cook, with his gardening hobby tends to view patients in a similar way to how he views plants - some are flowers, some are weeds. The weeds need to be pulled out to protect the flowers.

Good people get very old before passing on. Bad people, whilst they happen to be at their most destructive, have unexpected health problems which prove fatal. Sick people who only have suffering ahead of them are euthanized. But there has never been a suspicious death. As regional health officer Dr.Cook would know if there had. He finds no fault in his own quality of healthcare and isn't going to call in another doctor to conduct an autopsy.

Tennyson, absent from the town for five years, begins to clue in that not everything is as it seems by taking stock of the sheer volume of people who have dropped dead under suspicious circumstances since he left each of which tie in not merely to malpractice by Cook but actual murder.

The other townspeople are blissfully unaware. They don't have Tennyson's education or cynicism. Tennyson has something else they don't have - the objectivity and fresh perspective that comes from an outsider's view.

He, like a lot of townspeople lost somebody close to him - his alcoholic maniac father who used to beat him senseless. The same man conveniently died of a stroke but one week after administering a particularly severe beating in which adolescent Tennyson's arm was broken.

For the most part the now well-documented dark side of Bing Crosby remained concealed beneath his public image until years after his death when his children came forward with shocking stories of brutal abuse by his hand. Very few of his performances betrayed the cruel, sadistic nature of the man. The narrative here touches upon a number of things that Crosby should have been made uncomfortable by.

The premise of this one fascinated me for years after I had been told about it. The person who got me interested in it only mentioned it in passing and was unable to give me the title of the right details for tracking it down mistakenly informing me that it had starred Fred Astaire and that the film had been a theatrical release in 1976 instead of a TV movie with Bing Crosby made in 1971. It took me twenty years to find it.

What this narrative deals with are subjects that weren't really talked about. Euthanasia, medicine in rural areas, the "God Complex" noted in a few cases of various physicians. The shock the viewer has doesn't necessarily come the fact that this nice old man is a mass-murderer though that should be enough. The shock comes with what degree the viewer and those that they are watching the film with begin to see a validity in what he is doing.

Note:

Based on the Ira Levin stage play.

Broadcast as an instalment of ABC Tuesday Night at the Movies.

Bing's wonderful in dramas

[HotToastyRag · 8/10 · 17 November 2018]

Bing Crosby, with beautiful silver hair and a new goatee to make him look old, stars as the title character in this entertaining tv flick Dr. Cook's Garden. He's a lovable country doctor connected to everyone in the town; perfect casting, right? I love how Bing makes everything better. If he were my doctor, I'd actually look forward to going!

Frank Converse returns to town after a five year absence while being in medical school, and he completely ruins the movie. It's not really his fault as an actor; his character is written to be a suspicious, mean, disloyal creep. He's supposed to be completely devoted to Bing, who treated like a father, but as soon as he gets back in town, he starts getting suspicious as to Bing's medical methods. Who does he think he is?

Frank aside, this is an enjoyable movie that will make you talk with your friends afterwards about morality, loyalty, and justice. Bing is excellent, with a multi-faceted performance combined with the charm he's had for decades. It's rare to catch him in a drama, so check this one out if you like him.

King Crosby

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 4 July 2022]

Dark king Crosby, in a role maybe not so far from what he was in real life; try to read his son's book, where the young man describes his home daily hell, xanks to his father, the great American Icon. So, back to this pretty good TV stuff, the main interest, besides Crosby unusual character, is the way how the young idealistic doctor discovers slowly but surely that his model doctor - Crosby - may be not as sweet and kind as he supposes to be.

Try That In A Small Town

[cutterccbaxter · 22 January 2024]

I thought: Do I really want to watch a movie about a doctor's garden? Since Bing Crosby was in it I figured maybe he'd do a little crooning while fertilizing.

Bing didn't need to do any singing because he played a bad doctor. Not a bad doctor like Frank Burns on M*A*S*H*, but an EVIL bad doctor. Evil doctors don't sing, they kill patients. In fairness to Bing, he only knocks off residents who he feels are a hindrance to a blissful community.

I enjoyed Bing's performance. I think even if you didn't know who Bing was, you'd appreciate his acting in Dr. Cook's Garden.

I wondered about Frank Converse's character. He put 2 and 2 together pretty fast as far as figuring out Dr. Bing's murderous ways. Frank knows the victims have all been poisoned. And yet, like a complete idiot, he goes on a picnic with Dr. Bing and eats a sandwich dosed with some type of toxin. He seemed suspicious of the beverage in the thermos, why not the sandwich?

If I were Frank, I would have said: "Sure, I'll go on a picnic with you Dr. Bing, after all, it is a beautiful day. But let's swing by the Piggly Wiggly on the way to the bucolic setting, and I'll pick up a sandwich from the deli. Okay?"

And if Bing said, "Not okay," then Frank could have said, "Go ahead and go on your picnic without me. Maybe Dorothy Lamour and Bob Hope got nothing going on and they'll go with you."