MovieChat Forums > Dark Victory (1939) Discussion > Unethical Doctor!!!

Unethical Doctor!!!

posted 10 years ago by strumdatjag
11 replies | jump to latest

So, our male hero is supposedly a great guy. But he's a doctor who becomes romantically involved with his patient and then refuses to give her adequate information about her illness. The supposed illness (the Illness 2.0) that is concocted to create the drama in this film is preposterous. This sat on my DVR for months and I finally viewed it because of the hoopla regarding 1939. What a waste of time. Granted there are some good acting performances, which raises my rating for this drivel to 5/10

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dwc_cherry 10 years ago

Who cares the women had less than 1yr to live and he gave her a happy end to life, which is more than can be said for alot of supposedly ethical doctors.

[–] TheNooz 10 years ago

It actually was a common practice in those days not to tell patients that they were dying of cancer. It was thought to be kinder to let the patient believe that there was hope. Families and doctors would go to any length to maintain the charade. I don't think this is right, but that's the way it was. There was such a stigma associated with cancer that even people who knew they had it would pretend it was something else, and you wouldn't see the word used in obituaries. The euphemism was "died after a long illness," but everyone knew what it really meant.

[–] joyceday 10 years ago

If I only had a year to live I would want to spend it with George Brent ethics or no ethics!

[–] TheNooz 9 years ago

If I only had a year to live I would want to spend it with George Brent ethics or no ethics!

Amen to that!

[–] USAFmedicVET 8 years ago

Other than surgically removing the tumor and RESEARCH, which the doctor was devoted to, there was really no hope for cancer patients. So it seems quite understandable that doctors and family members would keep the gravity of the situation from the patient as long as possible.
And it's thanks to the RESEARCH such devoted doctors, CANCER is no longer the Death Sentence it was in the past! Teams of Specialists, family members and the patient work together to cure and prolong a healthy life for cancer patients and survivors!
But still, why burden the patient back then with 'Prognosis Negative'? They'd have no reason to get up in the morning. And the doctor wasn't unethical in the least. He was in love and by the time he married her, he was a Research Scientist, which is where he was headed before he reluctantly saw one more patient as a favor to a colleague...IMO!

_________________
"We in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few,
We Band of Brothers" ~W.S.

and which does save lives today,

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

... and he gave her a happy end to life ...

The actual romance was pretty much downplayed, but she never behaved as if she'd been taken advantage of by an unethical doctor.🐭

[–] rapture87 8 years ago

Yes, fortunately the actual romance was downplayed. We barely even see them kissing.

[–] TheChamCham 8 years ago

 Amen to that !

Rescue the damsel in distress, whip the bad guy, save the world.

[–] EliotTempleton 8 years ago

You are truly a moron, and the only excuse for your post might be that you're fourteen years old. Do you expect reality in your film experiences? If so, there must be damned few movies of which you approve. In addition, you apparently have some issue with Judith Traherne's disease, which is glioblastoma. Your homework assignment is to look up this devastating form of cancer, and then come back here to apologize.

[–] dmnemaine 8 years ago

There is no "supposed illness". Glioblastoma is a very real type of brain tumor that still is as untreatable today as it was in 1939.