Paul Muni’s loss was Edward G. Robinson’s gain when director William Dieterle followed up PASTEUR, ZOLA and JUAREZ with a fourth ‘Great Man’ bio-pic on turn-of-the-last-century research scientist Dr. Paul Ehrlich.* And with Robinson in for Muni, who’d just ‘ankled’ at Warner Bros., it’s our gain, too, since Robinson’s lack of histrionics were the better fit for this leaner storyline. Lean but tough, with most of the film taken up by Ehrlich’s searching a cure for syphilis, a very tricky storyline for the period. (Tricky now, too.) John Huston gets credit for a last whack at humanizing the script, adding color & character to what might have been a very dry test tube drama. Instead, there’s a surprisingly strong emotional kick to it, right from the start when a young man gets the bad news. Ehrlich’s family life remains a bit stiff, but the professional side of things (struggles with colleagues & funding, a major court fight, a diphtheria outbreak), along with timely parallels to current German political concerns, give the film plenty of drama. Well-paced by Dieterle and handsomely caught in James Wong Howe’s dark, moody cinematography.
DOUBLE-BILL: *Right after this, Dieterle made a fifth ‘Great Man’ bio-pic, again with Robinson in a role Muni might have taken, A DISPATCH FROM REUTERS/’40. (Hal Wallis, who produced all of them, considered SERGEANT YORK/’41 the last in this bio-pic series.)
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: In spite of his varied resume, Eddie G. was still ‘typed’ as Mob Guy #1. Hence the addendum on our poster promising that MAGIC BULLETS is ‘Not A Gangster Picture!’ (Click poster to expand.)
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