I Married A Doctor (1936)

There is a lot of good dialogue in this adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street about small town gossip. Directed by Archie Mayo the screenplay was written by Harriet Ford Harvey O’Higgins and Casey Robinson (Captain Blood (1935)). Carol (Josephine Hutchinson) is a woman from Chicago who marries hometown doctor William Kennicott played by Pat O’Brien and tries to adapt to life in Williamsburg a rural place where everyone knows everybody.

Carol’s first mistake while trying to make a good impression is to “flirt” with all the men in town causing all the women to be jealous of her from the start. She befriends two of the local outcasts one is a Swedish workman who ends up marrying the Swedish housekeeper she brought with her from Chicago. There is a great scene in which he gives her the straightforward dope while informing her that she erred with the town’s ladies by the way she conducted herself with the town’s men the previous night. The other “fish out of water” she befriends is a local farmer’s son Erik (Ross Alexander) who has real artistic talent.

Carol encourages Erik to pursue his dreams in lieu of accepting his lot and the two of them end up working on a civic improvement project together. It causes him to fall in love with her though she is not aware of his affections and did not intentionally encourage them. However her marriage to O’Brien is strained because as the town’s favorite son he was unwilling to support her grandiose plans for beautifying the town for fear of ruffling feathers. Erik decides to express his feelings for his wife to O’Brien who incorrectly thinks there may be something to it.

Scandal and a couple of tragedies ensue but it all works out for the better in the end. Familiar to all actor Guy Kibbee is also in the film.