One Against the World (1939) Online

This short film tells the story of Ephraim McDowell (Jonathan Hale), the Kentucky physician who performed the first surgery on a woman in 1809. Based on fact, the film primarily focuses on the paranoia of the local townsfolk, who are so suspicious of McDowell that they're ready to lynch him. When his patient lives, McDowell is vindicated and accepted by the local residents.

The real Ephraim McDowell did perform surgery to remove a large ovarian tumor, and without anesthetic or sterile tools! His patient recovered and lived several more decades. The movie veers toward being pretty overripe, and there's narration instead of dialogue, but it's short, to the point, and watchable.

JONATHAN HALE is the courageous small-town doctor who has the strength to defy the villagers who are opposed to any doctor using surgical instruments to open the human body. When a woman becomes in need of surgery to remove a cancer, the doctor feels obliged to follow the wishes of her husband that he operate.

Of course, the operation is successful and the doctor, instead of being the subject of a public hanging, is treated with the respect he deserves.

Told in very melodramatic fashion, as so many of these short subjects were during the late '30s and throughout the '40s, this is an MGM short directed by Fred Zinnemann, who would soon go on to direct major projects like THE SEARCH with Montgomery Clift after serving time as a director of shorts or full-length B-films at the studio.

Interesting but a bit hokey in its approach.

I suppose these shorts were included in the movie theaters as fillers. They tended to be a bit simplistic, but told good stories. In this one, the doc sits on his front porch. He is not respected because he has no dirt under his nails. He reads books and the locals think he is snobbish and arrogant. They also believe that a doctor really only have bandages wounds and gives out pills. When it comes to surgery, it's the religious community that comes in to call him a devil. One person dies because of their unwillingness to let him do a simple surgery. When a man's wife becomes I'll, the doctor knows he can help, but he can only do so at the risk of his life. It is the early 1800's although it appears to be more like a mid to late saga of the Old West. The townspeople are shown to be ignorant rubes with a mean spiritedness that was probably a bit overstated. Still, it's an entertaining few minutes.

One Against the World (1939)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This early short from Fred Zinnemann is part of the wonderful "Passing Parade" series from MGM. The film takes place in Danville, Kentucky where on December 25, 1809 Dr. McDowell (Jonathan Hale) became the first person to actually operate on a woman. The people in the small town saw him as some sort of devil who would be killing the woman when he tried to remove a tumor from her and they set out to kill the doctor before he shocks them by bringing life to the woman. If you're familiar with the Passing Parade series then you know that it often shined a light on certain events that were important but something most had forgotten. This here is certainly one of the best episodes in the series because there's a nice bit of drama and it was interesting seeing how religious figures would be against such a doctor back in the day. The film, like others in the series, features that terrific narration by John Nesbitt who really packs a nice punch and helps make the thing even more dramatic. The "action" going on is all silent as the only thing we get is the narration but the performances are still quite good and especially Hale who manages to tell so much with just his eyes.