The Courageous Dr. Christian

The second film of the Dr. Christian series has Jean Hersholt working on slum clearance in his small Minnesota town. It's hard to fathom in this day and age, but right up to World War II there were these ramshackle villages in just about every community made up of the migrant, the poor, and the dispossessed. In such a community Dr. Christian finds Tom Neal caring for his younger siblings. These ramshackle Hoovervilles so dubbed for the former president were breeding grounds for disease and pestilence.

Disease does come in the form of spinal meningitis and the last third of the film is The Courageous Dr. Christian both fighting the disease and the stubbornness of the town council which fails to see its social responsibility.

Hersholt wants a housing project and he's got the spot for it, some vacant land owned by rich widow Vera Lewis. But Vera while taking in Neal's siblings also has ideas about matrimony with the good doctor. That's maybe too big a sacrifice for Jean Hersholt to make.

There's also a bit of romantic rivalry between Neal and the Dr. Christian regulars, nurse Dorothy Lovett and druggist Robert Baldwin.

All in all a good entry in the Dr. Christian series.