The Flame Within

Lillian Belton (Maureen O'Sullivan) is suicidal. Psychiatrist Dr. Mary White (Ann Harding) saves her and learns that her troubles stem from the alcoholic Jack Kerry (Louis Hayward). Dr. Gordon Phillips (Herbert Marshall) falls for Dr. White. He wants to marry her, but also wants her to abandon her work.

This movie has so many red flags... modern flags. I don't know if these red flags flew back in the day. I don't think modern psychiatrists would do what she does. Also, the ending is very tough in the modern sense. These are complicated relationships and I'm not comfortable with them. I feel like none of these people should be together, but times were different.

New York City "nerve specialist" (which means psychiatrist) Ann Harding (as Mary White) returns the love declared by physician Herbert Marshall (as Gordon Phillips), but she declines his offer of marriage because Ms. Harding wants to focus on her career. Marriage means Harding would assume the "housewife" role exclusively. After Mr. Marshall tends to suicidal young Maureen O'Sullivan (as Lillian Belton), he recommends Harding see Ms. O'Sullivan professionally.

Harding meets O'Sullivan as she is trying to kill herself yet again, by jumping out a window. The two women take a cigarette break. Then, Harding decides the best way to stop O'Sullivan from killing herself is to have regular sessions with… no, not O'Sullivan, but her handsome young boyfriend. Yes, Harding figures she needs to cure O'Sullivan by making alcoholic Louis Hayward (as Jack Kerry) stop drinking. Things get complicated when a new love relationship forms...

Harding barely gets through this story, with her elbow often protruded and some emoting close-ups. Marshall tries to maintain dignity, against all odds. O'Sullivan is pretty. While lower-billed, Hayward unexpectedly becomes the story focus. A-list director Edmund Goulding was successful enough to write, produce, and direct "The Flame Within" at MGM, but psychiatry based on seeing a patient's alcoholic boyfriend seems unprofessional. Some of it is unintentionally funny.

**** The Flame Within (5/17/35) Edmund Goulding ~ Ann Harding, Herbert Marshall, Louis Hayward, Maureen O'Sullivan

Dr. Mary White (Ann Harding) and Dr. Gordon Phillips (Herbert Marshall) have been dating for a very long time and although Gordon clearly loves her, she seems a bit cold about their getting married. Some of this is because of the common expectation in the 1930s that a woman give up her career when she marries--and she worked her butt off to be a psychiatrist. Into this atmosphere of ambivalence comes a suicidal and very neurotic woman (Maureen O'Sullivan). The lady has repeatedly attempted suicide because the relationship with her boyfriend is so dysfunctional and she deals with his alcoholism by these wild suicide attempts. Her new doctor, Mary, decides that unless she also treats the boyfriend (Louis Hayward) then the suicidal woman will eventually succeed in trying to off herself.

Despite some hiccups, Mary is able to work with the boyfriend and get him to stop drinking and become productive. This is good news and now he and his girlfriend can marry. But there is bad news--he and Mary are struggling with feelings towards each other...and they sure ain't professional feelings!!

The notion of a psychiatrist and patient having romantic feelings towards each other is an interesting topic...especially since it's the biggest reason a psychotherapist would lose their license today. It's completely taboo for a therapist to have such a relationship and it's 100% unprofessional. However, back in the early days of the field, the rules weren't so clear--and here both entertain the notion of having a relationship even though he's married and she's been engaged forever. Investigating how his transference and her counter-transference (the commonly used terms for this sort of thing) takes place and is professionally handled would have been interesting. Unfortunately, the film isn't sure what to do about this and makes it all very sappy and romantic...and utterly ridiculous. Especially ridiculous is Gordon who feels the best thing to do is give Mary to her patient and walk away. This is unprofessional, unethical and, frankly, no one is THAT noble. So how does it all work out? Well, unfortunately, in a very silly and Hollywood way...hence my score of only 3. The film brings up interesting topics...it just doesn't handle them very well!

Yikes, what a mess.

"The Flame Within" is from 1935 and stars Ann Harding, Herbert Marshall, Louis Hayward, Maureen O'Sullivan, and C. Aubrey Smith.

Harding is Dr. Mary White, a hard-working psychiatrist. Herbert Marshall plays Dr. Gordon Phillips, her good friend. He's in love with her and wants to marry her, but she resists. She would rather concentrate on her work. In those days, when a woman married, she stayed home. Mary isn't sure how that would work out for her.

Phillips has a suicidal patient, Linda (O'Sullivan) whom he convinces to see White. The problem is Linda's boyfriend, Jack (Hayward),is an alcoholic. Mary suggests that she counsel Jack and perhaps help him.

Jack manages to both stop drinking and fall in love with his doctor and vice versa - I mean, way to go, fall for the suicidal patient's love of her life. Mary and Jack find some happiness, but Linda picks up on the situation and becomes jealous.

Dated and muddled, this isn't the best film that these people have made though they all do their best to overcome the script. Maureen O'Sullivan is beautiful, and one thing about her -- she was always very earnest. Harding is stiff upper lip.

I'm not sure I liked the way this film ended. I loved all the actors but this script was pretty bad.

Edmund Goulding produced, wrote and directed this peculiar melodrama about a suicidal woman in love with an alcoholic man, both treated by psychiatrist Ann Harding. The woman is Maureen O'Sullivan, who took an overdose of drugs because she loves Louis Hayward, who drinks too much and doesn't seem to care about her. So far, so good; it's probably happened many times in real life. But I winced when I saw how Harding handled it. Her idea was to get Hayward to stop drinking, virtually ignoring O'Sullivan's total dependence on Hayward's love to keep on living, instead of trying to get at the root of that dependence. Harding herself has some problems being in love with Herbert Marshall, who wants to marry her, but also wants her to give up her practice and become a homemaker, which she is not willing to do. This was the 1930's, after all, and men behaved that way. Harding gets Hayward to go to a rehabilitation center. He goes on the wagon for months, but becomes attached to Harding. She reminds him that O'Sullivan is as dependent on him as he is on herself. Her treatment works in that Hayward eventually marries O'Sullivan, and the pair seem to be happy. But not for long. O'Sullivan senses that not only does her husband love Harding, but also that she loves him. In a very dramatic scene, she accuses Harding of this and Harding can't deny it, but ponders what to do to keep their marriage intact.