SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

whpratt1 Dr. Andrew Manson, (Robert Donat) is a new doctor who comes to a mining town for his new position and has a hard time starting out, but he soon becomes accepted by the mine union and he obtains a foot hold in the town. However, the union wanted a doctor who is married, because they are also furnishing a large home. Dr. Andrew had met a young lady who was a teacher and all of a sudden, he asks Christine, (Rosalind Russell) if she will marry him, even though he does not even know her name or anything else about her. Dr. Andrew becomes very interested in the problems that the miner's are having with their lungs and starts to make studies with animals and is even able to write a medical journal on the breathing conditions in the mine. This is a very interesting story and Dr. Andrew has many ups and downs to go though before the end of this film.

edwagreen A wonderful look into the medical profession with a fine performance by that wonderful character actor Robert Donat.Rebuked by the coal citizens of Wales when he wants to research tuberculosis and working in the mines, Donat is lured to working with the wealthy and living the appropriately high society life style.It is only with the death of a friend during botched surgery by a doctor for the wealthy, the Donat character realizes that it's time to go back to his former way of doctoring.Rosalind Russell is miscast as Donat's wife. In the film, she is the prim teacher who gave up her teaching career to marry the good doctor.This film is an excellent representation of the medical profession. It is extremely well done and worth watching.

kyle_furr This has been the second film i've seen of king vidor, the first being duel in the sun and the next being stella dallas. Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell both give good performances, but the last scene of the movie feels tacked on and unnecessary.

jandesimpson "The Citadel" is one of those circular morality fables - idealistic young man sets out full of good intentions to put the world to right, but, finding his dreams dashed by prejudice and ignorance, throws in his lot with the protection of an easy but dishonest life only to realise the error of his ways through personal tragedy with consequent redemption. A;though stylistically and culturally a world apart, it is thematically a precursor of Mizoguchi's "Sansho Dayu". Made in great Britain in 1938, its MGM backing certainly shows in higher production values than most home grown films of the period - and this in spite of much reliance on back projection of the sort that even the great Carol Reed could not always effectively disguise. One of Hollywood's top directors, King Vidor, invests it with visual quality and, in a part that could have been tailored for Greer Garson, Rosalind Russell makes a surprisingly convincing female lead, supporting the hero throughout his tribulations with every ounce of Garsonian understanding he needs. But it is Robert Donat as the idealistic doctor, who first tries his professional hand in the dark Welsh colliery valley, that is the film's greatest strength. Here was an actor who brought a sense of dignity and integrity to every role he undertook from the earliest Richard Hannay to the Chinese nobleman in "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" which he was brave enough to play when he was literally gasping for breath. His performance in "The Citadel" is not entirely free from cliché but I imagine this was something imposed by the conventions of the period. How else to explain that when he becomes mean and mercenary he suddenly sports a very short and unsympathetic moustache which, if memory serves me right, miraculously disappears for the final scene of redemption. For the rest there is a galaxy of British acting talent to be found among the supporting roles with a brief glimpse of the dignified Nora Swinburne and a few more of a youthful Francis L. Sullivan doing his obese bigot stuff with rather less brains than usual. And as if this was not all, there is "Sexy Rexy" Harrison gracing the Harley Street scene, Cecil Parker playing a particularly odious surgeon who would no doubt be struck off the Medical Register if he were around today and the great Ralph Richardson investing the role of Donat's best friend with just about the right amount of Shakespearean rhetoric that the part will support. All in all a veritable treat provided you suspend just a little bit of disbelief.