MARY STEVENS, M.D.

 

The Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for January 2022 was Kay Francis, the epitome of the modern, stylish American woman for the early 1930s. MARY STEVENS, M.D. has Francis as a hard-working doctor dealing with all sorts of personal and professional problems. 

Mary and her lifelong friend, Don Andrews (Lyle Talbot) run a joint doctor's practice in the inner city. Mary is smitten with Don, but he aspires to bigger things. Don marries the daughter (Thelma Todd) of a powerful city politician, and he gets a job on the town medical board. While Mary devotes herself to her profession, Don uses his city job to enrich himself. Mary takes a well-earned vacation, and meets up with Don at a resort (he's hiding out from the authorities who are on to his shenanigans). Don tells Mary he and his wife no longer have a relationship, and he's planning on getting a divorce. Mary is ecstatic, and believes Don when he says the divorce could take some time. Meanwhile, Mary is pregnant with Don's baby...so she goes off to Europe to have it, hoping to come home a few months later claiming she adopted it, while winding up in the arms of Don. This being a Pre-Code movie, and one about a modern woman at that, things don't go so easily for Dr. Stevens. 

MARY STEVENS, M.D. is one of those great early 30s Warner Bros. films that only last a little over an hour, but have more plot complications than all the episodes of an average TV series. In most of her films Kay Francis was best known for having a sophisticated demeanor and wardrobe. Here, her fashion sense is toned down, but Francis gets to show every emotion there is, while defining Mary as a smart, sensible professional who has more talent (and honor) than anyone else in the cast. 

Mary is such a worthy individual, that one wonders what the heck she sees in Don, who, quite frankly, is a clod. Lyle Talbot isn't exactly the most charismatic leading man in the world, but it wouldn't have mattered if it was George Brent, or Preston Foster...like so many 1930s films that have a strong female leading character, MARY STEVENS has a very weak male character as a counterpart. The role of Don Andrews doesn't ruin the film, but while watching a viewer has to be asking, "A smart, attractive professional woman like Kay Francis can't find anybody better?" 

It's hard to believe that this movie was made almost 90 years ago when one watches the scene where Mary announces to her loyal nurse/best friend Glenda (Glenda Farrell) that she is pregnant with the married Don's baby. Mary isn't sad, or apprehensive, or ashamed...she's proud and excited, secure in the knowledge that this is what she wants. Unfortunately, the last third of the film takes a hard turn into heavy-handed melodrama--so much so that one has to wonder if the script is "punishing" Mary for her having an out-of-wedlock baby. 

What's also interesting about the script is how it shows the various reactions that people have when Mary tells them she's a doctor--they range from disbelief to utter revulsion. Kay Francis wasn't known for having the dramatic tantrums, that, say, a Barbara Stanwyck would display....but I wished she had socked more than a couple folks on the jaw in this film (especially Don, who needed it several times). 

Francis gets great support here from the wonderful Glenda Farrell as her wisecracking co-worker/best friend. After seeing them in this film you hope there's an alternate universe where they got to play their characters in several other features. I have to admit that a main reason I watched MARY STEVENS was due to the fact that Thelma Todd was in it. Thelma fans will be a bit disappointed, though. She only has two scenes, and she gets very little to do, other than be a glamorous opposite to the leading lady. (As a matter of fact, Todd and Kay Francis are never onscreen together here.) This is one of Thelma's way too many "other woman" roles, but at least here she doesn't seem vindictive or jealous (maybe her character also realized that Don was a dolt). We hear more about the role Thelma is playing than we actually see her. Una O'Connor has a small role (and no, she doesn't screech). 

MARY STEVENS, M.D. was directed by Warners veteran Lloyd Bacon, who was already an old hand at this sort of material. The pace never flags, and the cast is appealing and fun to watch (except for the lead male character). The only downside to this movie is the last third of it, which goes out of its way to pile all sorts of burdens on the leading lady in soap opera fashion. MARY STEVENS, M.D. is more proof of something I've said over and over again--American actresses had far better roles to play in the 1930s than they do in the 21st Century.