(3 of 3)
Arrowsmith (United Artists-Samuel Goldwyn) is a faithful and brilliant facsimile of what most critics consider Sinclair Lewis' best novel. Compressed to two hours, the story of young Dr. Martin Arrowsmith (Ronald Colman) starts when he meets Leora Tozer (Helen Hayes), proposes marriage when they are sitting in a cheap restaurant near a mechanical piano. The story continues in South Dakota, where Arrowsmith tries to practice medicine, cures cows as a sideline. Arrow-smith's sojourn at an elaborate research institute—where Author Lewis reverted to his familiar flair for making fools of characters who were fools to begin with—is telescoped a little, but the magnificent climax—when Arrowsmith goes to the West Indies to fight bubonic plague—is more impressive, because more explicit, in pictures than in print. In the West Indies, Arrowsmith's friend Sondelius (Richard Bennett) dies, wishing he could have one more drink. Leora dies too, while Arrowsmith is away inoculating natives against plague and making friends with a lady who, in the picture, does not become his second wife. Arrowsmith comes home to tell Gottlieb, who started him on his career as a scientist, that he has broken his promise to experiment on the natives, been contemptibly humane.
Director John Ford avoided the cinematic equivalent of fine writing which usually attaches itself to such ambitious reproductions. Ronald Colman's British accent and pleat-waisted trousers do not fit Arrowsmith's Midwest origins but his performance is valid in other respects. The magnificently, minutely true characterization which Helen Hayes gives to Leora is one of the events of the year. Good shots: rats, outlined in fire, leaving a burning brush village; Leora's reply to Arrowsmith's proffer of marriage: "Have you got a nickel? I want soft music."