VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

kidboots Lyle Talbot came to Hollywood after having his own stock company to answer the "we need good stage actors" call and happened to catch the eye of William Wellman who immediately started using him. This film wasn't Wellman directed (it was a Phil Rosen picture) but it did have ravishing Thelma Todd in a rare main role, in fact the title role!!Even though Dr. Cromwell (Talbot) is acquitted of a malpractice suit, his reputation is in tatters with only the gawkers and gossip mongers willing to wait in his clinic all day just for a chance to view him. When a pushy reporter posing as a patient gets Cromwell to open up his heart he feels betrayed and is only too willing when an aviator buddy convinces him to fly to places unknown.Cromwell is the only person to walk away from the crash and into a small Yukon outpost where he tries to keep his identity a secret - in fact the beautiful Klondike (Todd) gives him the idea by commenting that he couldn't be that "killer doctor"!! And how have they been able to get all the up to date mainland news?? That is all through Jim Armstrong (Jason Robards) who before he was stricken down with an unknown disease (the same one that Cromwell had operated on that caused him all that trouble) he was an engineering wizard who has built radios in every room. His father (good old Henry B. Walthall) guesses Cromwell's true identity and begs him to operate on Jim, saying he will accept any outcome.There has to be a villain and the splendid Jason Robards is a great one - initially hiding his surliness under his affliction, he can't hide his "megalomaniac" nature when the operation is a success - but is it?? Jim realises that if he shows how well he is he will lose Klondike, so he decides to stick to his wheelchair (and only walk at night). The thrilling ending features Cromwell, minutes from death at the hands of maniacal Jim - will he be saved with only the radio sound waves to help him???Priscilla Dean who was a huge star in the teens and twenties - she was Universal's biggest female star until the arrival of Laura La Plante - she played the feisty reporter!! Recommended.

JohnHowardReid This film and the serial, "The Mysterious Pilot" (1937), plus a documentary short produced by Lockheed around 1940 are the only movie appearances of Captain Frank Hawks, a daring test pilot who was killed in 1937 when an allegedly safe-as-houses airplane he was piloting, crashed. Would you believe, this movie anticipates this real life event? Early on, the character Hawks plays, dies in a crash. That's a shame because Hawks is not only a fascinating person, he's easily the best actor in this film. True, Lyle Talbot is reasonably competent, Thelma Todd looks good (but is not as charismatic as usual) and there is a great performance by Jason Robards as the afflicted Jim Armstrong. And yes, the original screenplay by Tristram Tupper does have some attention-grabbing twists, while Phil Rosen's fluid direction is considerably more involving than his usual humdrum approach! Available on a very good Alpha DVD.

MartinHafer This is a film from W.T. Lackey Productions--a tiny "Poverty Row" studio that lasted a few years from the early to mid-1930s. And, while it had some relatively big-name stars (Lyle Talbot, Thelma Todd, Gabby Hayes and Henry Walthall among others), it is clearly a rather low-budget film. However, the most obvious cheap attribute of the film aren't the set or acting but the incredibly contrived script....very, very contrived! The dialog is also a bit on the limp side as well. Clearly these guys did not hire Preston Sturges or Ben Hecht to pen this script! It was Tristram Tupper--hardly a household name.The film begins with a doctor on trial for murder (Talbot). It seems he was trying some untested technique on a terminal patient and when the patient died he was blamed for this. However, the jury acquits him but in the court of public opinion he was guilty. Soon his medical license is revoked and he has no idea what to do with his life. On a lark, he agrees to accompany a friend on a record-breaking flight through the Pacific Northwest to Japan. However, the plane is forced down in the Klondike due to weather and the Doctor is stuck there. Fortunately, a guy with the exact same rare and unnamed illness just happens to be there AND he's the fiancé of a woman who the good Doc has fallen for during his recouperation after the plane crash!! He has to decide whether to try this same failed procedure and save her fiancé or do nothing--which is the legal thing to do and which will get him the girl! But, since he's a nice guy he operates. Unfortunately, the operation isn't much of a success--though the guy does survive. And, oddly, soon after this there is a report on the radio that the dead guy's wife from the beginning of the film admitted that she and the Doctor had 'put her husband out of his misery'--though this comes out of the blue and simply isn't true! Wow, has this gotten complicated and hard to believe! What ACTUALLY has happened and which is explained soon after is amazingly tough to believe as well! The ending is ridiculously impossible, but also rather neat in its own twisted way! All in all, a decent time-passer but a film that isn't for one second believable. The actors try their best, but the whole thing really could have used a re-write. Perhaps it didn't because it was a B-movie and the studio simply was trying to quickly churn out products.

Derutterj-1 Solid little Monogram drama with very original story and denouement. Lyle Talbot, who would appear in anything, even a notorious Edward Wood picture, stars with considerable intelligence and sincerity. Hard-working Thelma Todd has a serious role and both leads are appealing together. Henry B. Walthall (another veteran who didn't know how to retire) supports, as does Gabby Hayes and Jason Robards Sr.The start is a little shaky, with some awkward staging, but after it gets into its stride I can say that this has much to recommend it. The attitude of Klondike's cast, and its out-of-the-rut story, is what makes it all work.