The Citadel (1938)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Andrew Manson an idealistic young doctor, takes up a new post in a Welsh mining town where his curiosity is roused by a persistent cough in his mining patients. His investigation leads him to believe the mine is contributing to the aggravation of tuberculosis among the men. When he reveals his findings and proposes treatment, he finds opposition from not only the mine's owners but the miners themselves. Sensing his inefficacy, Manson moves to London in search of a purpose.
- Actors:
- Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Richardson, Rex Harrison, Emlyn Williams, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Francis L. Sullivan, Mary Clare, Cecil Parker, Nora Swinburne, Edward Chapman, Athene Seyler, Felix Aylmer, Joyce Bland, Percy Parsons, Dilys Davies, Basil Gill, Joss Ambler, Cameron Hall, Bryan Herbert
- Directors:
- King Vidor
- Writers:
- Ian Dalrymple, Frank Wead
- Others:
- King Vidor, Elizabeth Hill
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- Acting Up: British Actors at the Oscars, Award Winners, Drama Films & TV, Fictional British Prime Ministers On Screen, People of the Pictures, Remembering Leslie Phillips
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Reviews (1) of The Citadel
Class Conflict. - The Citadel review by Steve
This rousing adaptation of AJ Cronin's medical drama was made by MGM in England because Robert Donat was unwilling to transfer to Hollywood. And in King Vidor, the studio provided an American director familiar with social realist cinema. Together they made the great British political film of the thirties.
Donat is a working class doctor whose career takes him from the coalfields of Wales to Harley Street and finds medicine is obstructed by ignorance, inequality, insufficiency and vested interest. And among the wealthy, even by the mercenary medics themselves. Through Ralph Richardson's reformed whisky-doctor, the film makes a case for national insurance.
At the climax, Donat gives one of his trademark orations. It feels a missed opportunity that this is about professional elitism rather than the case for social medicine. Of the support cast, Richardson brings energy and Rex Harrison is most convincing as a materialistic narcissist with a clientele of rich old ladies.
Rosalind Russell has little to do as the doctor's wife, but does it with charm. It's Donat's film. He is convincing both as an idealist fighting for the poor, and the dilettante who gives up. Though it takes a line of dialogue to assure us that his accent is Scottish. One of many quality political films by King Vidor, though it's a shock to find that MGM campaigned for an NHS!