Disputed Passage

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Disputed Passage
"Disputed Passage" (1939).jpg
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Directed by Frank Borzage
Screenplay by Anthony Veiller
Sheridan Gibney
Based onDisputed Passage
by Lloyd C. Douglas
Produced by Harlan Thompson
Starring Dorothy Lamour
Akim Tamiroff
John Howard
Judith Barrett
William Collier, Sr.
Cinematography William C. Mellor
Edited by James Smith
Music by Friedrich Hollaender
(as Friedrich Hollander)
John Leipold
Color process Black and white
Production
company
Paramount Pictures
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • October 25, 1939 (1939-10-25)(New York) [1]
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Disputed Passage is a 1939 American drama war film directed by Frank Borzage and starring Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff, John Howard, Judith Barrett and William Collier Sr. [2] Set in war-torn China, the film was described by The New York Times as a "lavish soap opera". The film was based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas and was produced by Paramount Pictures.

Contents

Plot

Young medical student John Wesley Beaven is torn between the detached, cold pragmatism of Dr. Forster and the humanistic attitudes of kindly Dr. Cunningham. Matters are brought to a head when Beaven must choose between his career and impending marriage to fellow student Audrey Hilton. Dr. Forster convinces Audrey to return to her native China and let Beaven pursue his studies undistracted. She takes Forster's advice, but Beaven follows her. Once in the Orient he is injured in a bomb blast, and in a makeshift hospital, Dr. Forster must perform a risky operation to save Beaven's life.

Cast

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Frank S. Nugent accused Disputed Passage of "synthetic drama and not too subtle moralizing" and wrote: "[T]he film, particularly in its early phases, has been forcefully written and rather well played. While there no longer is much news in the conflict between the sympathetic, sentimental physician and the cold scientist who caustically challenges his medical class to find a human soul in their dissections, the topic remains a fertile and provocative one. ... [The] climax, proving the existence of a soul—at least, that's what we suppose it proved—rests entirely on an emotional appeal, and not too securely on that." [1]

References

  1. 1 2 Nugent, Frank S. (1939-10-26). "The Screen". The New York Times . p. 27.
  2. "Disputed Passage (1939)". BFI. Archived from the original on 2012-07-13.