Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933)

• Year: 1933
• Released: 22 Jul 1933
• Country: United States
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024307/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mary_stevens_m_d
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, Spanish, French
• MPA Rating: Passed
• Genre: Drama
• Runtime: 72 min
• Writer: Rian James, Robert Lord, Virginia Kellogg
• Director: Lloyd Bacon
• Cast: Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, Glenda Farrell
• Keywords: pregnancy, doctor, pre-code, pediatrician,

6.5/10

Mary Stevens, M.D. Storyline

Mary Stevens (Kay Francis) and her old friend Don Andrews (Lyle Talbot) graduate from medical school at the same time and decide to set up their respective medical offices in the same building. Mary builds her reputation despite many patients refusing to be treated by a woman. Don, however, starts dating Lois Cavanaugh (Thelma Todd), whose family is rich and influential, and neglects his practice for the privileges of a social life. Despite Mary’s love for Don, he marries Lois and sets up a new office with a high-class clientele. He also gives Mary a new office right next to his; while she ends up making a name for herself in the medical community, Don begins to pilfer funds from his practice. Jealousy and mistrust drive Mary and Don apart, seemingly for good. Two years later, Mary, now a famous doctor, takes a much-needed vacation and runs into Don, who is on the lam from the authorities. Mary and Don have an affair and Don tries to get a divorce. Lois is willing but her father doesn’t want the Cavanaugh name mixed up in any scandal. He clears Don’s name and gets all charges against him dropped–on the condition that Don will not divorce Lois for at least six months. When Mary finds herself pregnant by Don and he’s unable to marry her, she must decide whether to tell him or raise the child on her own; he can’t divorce Lois and their baby dies while on the ship. Very harsh. Mary is caught in the act of suicide and saves a child in the final scene. Mary gains her confidence back and all is good.

Mary Stevens, M.D. Play trailer

Mary Stevens, M.D. Photos

Mary Stevens, M.D. Torrents Download

Mary Stevens, M.D. Subtitles Download

Mary Stevens, M.D. Movie Reviews

Never has a woman suffered so much in 73 minutes!…

… not that Kay Francis was unaccustomed to suffering unjustly during her films, but the guy she falls for – yikes!

Kay plays the titular Mary, going through medical school with a guy she has loved since childhood, Don Andrews (Warner workhorse Lyle Talbot). They open a medical practice together, but Don is more interested in taking the easy way up, and he has affection for Mary but not love, which he has made no secret about. So he marries socialite Lois Cavanaugh, portrayed almost unrecognizably by Thelma Todd, and with that marriage comes a patronage job with the city.

But as Mary works hard at her practice, Don is skimming some then lots off the top from his patronage job and drinking heavily because his marriage with Lois is not working out. Mary takes over for him during an operation because he wanders into the OR blind drunk. When they accidentally meet up at a resort where he is hiding from an indictment – which he tells her all about – and she is recovering from overwork they spend a night together. Now, Don is honestly fooled – his wife lies and says she is having a baby to prevent the divorce he wants so that he can marry Mary. But how can Mary reconcile the fact that Don said the two have been through with one another a long time with her getting pregnant? Being a doctor she must know how these things happen! Plus there is a little matter of him being a drunken embezzler. Like I said before – Yikes! Mary you can do much better! But wait there’s more that you’ll have to find out about yourself when you watch it.

There are some great touches in this one. Glenda Farrell is more of the second lead than Lyle Talbott is here. He barely gets to act in this one. Glenda, as Mary’s nurse and best friend, has a load of precode one liners. And then there is the teenage patient of Mary’s who already has ulcers worrying about the state of the economy and banking system during the Depression, and not because he is hungry.

Even though this has lots of heavily trodden precode tropes, Kay Francis and Glenda Farrell make it worthwhile.

pre-code weeper

Kay Francis stars with Lyle Talbot, Thelma Todd, and Glenda Farrell in “Mary Stevens, M. D.”

Mary and her dear friend, Don, graduate from medical school and set up practice together. Don, however, is attracted to easy money, so he marries a politician’s daughter, Lois (Thelma Todd). He gets a special job on the medical commission. Apparently they’re a bunch of crooks and charge more money for a service than was charged by the hospital. This was some kind of pre-Medicare fraud.

Mary, meanwhile, has been in love with Don all these years, and it’s unrequited. She stays busy with her pediatrician practice, but finally her nurse (Farrell) insists she take a vacation. Well, who does she run into – running from an indictment – but Don.

The indictment is quashed thanks to his father-in-law. Don plans on asking Lois for a divorce – both of them want their freedom. So Mary and Don declare their love for one another.

Once back in the thick of things, Mary realizes she’s pregnant. When she tries to tell Don, he informs her that Lois is pregnant, and he can’t divorce her now. So Mary does what many unwed mothers did back then – she goes away, planning on returning with an adopted child.

Kay Francis as an actress exuded so much warmth and emotion that you’re pulling for her all the way. Actually I thought she could do a lot better than Lyle Talbot, who did a good job as Don. Farrell was a riot as the voice of reality.

A year after this film, the Hayes Code kicked in and unwed moms were out.

“Mary Stevens, M. D.” is a true melodrama. I was yanked into it, and I found it enjoyable, with some nail-biting along the way.

Amazingly adult….and amoral.

If you haven’t seen many films from the early 1930s, you may well be unaware of the term ‘Pre-Code’. This refers to the period up until part-way through 1934 when Hollywood routinely ignored the Production Code–with cursing, adultery, graphic violence, nudity and the like being almost celebrated in films! Because the film had become so amoral and non-family friendly, there was a strong backlash–which led to the strengthened Production Code. The period particularly from 1930-1934 was by far the wildest of the American Pre-Code films and “Mary Stevens, M.D.” is a wonderful example of this sort of film.

It’s not surprising that the film stars Kay Francis–the unofficial Queen of Pre-Code films! She seemed to play more of these slutty characters than anyone in Hollywood–and I wasn’t all that surprised to see her up to her old tricks in this film! Francis and Lyle Talbot play friends and young doctors who are just beginning their practices. Francis is a very dedicated pediatrician and Talbot is a lazy jerk. I saw nothing positive about his character, yet inexplicably Francis not only loved him but behaved like a total moron when it came to this sleaze-bag! When Talbot marries another woman (mostly because of the position in society it could get him), Francis still silently longs for him.

After a while, Talbot’s marriage begins to fizzle…and he becomes involved with some very illegal activities. When Francis finds out, instead of being angry at him because he’s betrayed his Hippocratic oath, she does the nasty with him–after some vague promise to leave his wife. When the divorce is NOT forthcoming, Francis is stuck–as she’s pregnant! What happens by the end of the film is pretty hard to believe–and really, really strains any chance at this film being a good film to the breaking point! The bottom line is that the characters have practically no redeeming value (particularly Talbot), Francis acts like she has a Chihuahua’s brain and the whole thing dissolves into a ridiculous mess by the end. It’s a shame, as the film WAS interesting…but ended up losing all my good will by the time the plot turned really dumb at the end. And I truly hate films that expect the audience to believe that a strong and intelligent woman could behave this stupidly!! Wow, talk about a mixed up message about gender equality!!!

A curiously amoral time-passer, but a film that could have been a lot better.

By the way, in the film you hear the term ‘Infantile Paralysis’. It is another way of referring to Polio if you were curious.