The Citadel

In Vidor’s adaptation of A.J. Cronin’s politically charged 1937 novel concerning medical ethics and the working conditions of doctors in the early 20th century, Robert Donat stars as Dr. Andrew Manson, an idealistic young Scottish doctor with dreams of improving the health of the working class who arrives in a Welsh village to help the miners with their tuberculosis. Disillusioned by his treatment by the locals, he then heads to London, where he learns the ins and outs of running a lucrative medical practice—namely, by exclusively treating wealthy hypochondriacs—triggering a crisis of conscience. Also starring Rosalind Russell as Manson’s wife, Christine, The Citadel endures as a powerful tribute to the social good that can be done by the medical field and as a condemnation of the betrayal of that objective in the name of profit.