Dr Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (1938) Movie Review & Film summary, Cast

Nothing espeically wrong with this film; it’s got a good cast, a virtual compendium of fine late ’30s character actors, up to and including a relaxed Edward G. Robinson in the lead, a pretty good script (co-written by John Huston) that doesn’t dumb things down too much, and smooth direction by William Dieterle. It’s the kind of substantial true-life story modern Hollywood doesn’t seem to want to touch, presented with the elan they save for moronic action blockbusters today. It deals with still-relevant topics such as scientific prejudice and the clash between social, medical, institutional, and personal ethics. It even stops to take some barbed pot-shots at the then-Nazi German government, by presenting many of Ehrlich’s difficulties as owing to his being Jewish. At one point his enemies take umbrage to his employing a Japanese assistant on money granted by the German government. Really the only problem with it is that it’s so damned Hollywood; if you’ve seen The Story of Louis Pasteur or Madame Curie or Edison The Man you already know the plot arcs, the bogus villains trying to hold up the brave man of progress, and idiotic comic relief.