''Green Light'' is a 1937 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Frank Borzage Frank Borzage ( né Borzaga; April 23, 1894 – June 19, 1962) was an American film director and actor. He was the first person to win the Academy Awards, Academy Award for Academy Award for Best Director, Best Director for his film ''7th Heaven ...

and starring

Errol Flynn Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian and American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Oliv ...

, Anita Louise and

Margaret Lindsay Margaret Lindsay (born Margaret Kies; September 19, 1910 – May 9, 1981) was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive. She was noted for her supporting work in successf ...

. The film is adapted from a novel written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The novel is closely related to Douglas' previous book, '' Magnificent Obsession'', which was also adapted as a film. It was Flynn's first starring role in a studio film not based on action.

Plot

Dr. Newell Paige is a surgeon whose refusal to name the real culprit in an operation gone fatally awry results in the ruin of his career. Dismissed from the hospital staff, Paige leaves Massachusetts and travels to Montana to assist a researcher into

Rocky Mountain spotted fever Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is a bacterial disease spread by ticks. It typically begins with a fever and headache, which is followed a few days later with the development of a rash. The rash is generally Petechial rash, made up of small s ...

, almost dying when he subjects himself to an experimental serum. Eventually Paige returns to his former post and is cleared of all charges.

Cast

Production

Originally Warner Bros. announced that

Leslie Howard Leslie Howard Steiner (3 April 18931 June 1943) was an English actor, director, producer and writer.Obituary, '' Variety'', 9 June 1943. He wrote many stories and articles for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', and '' Vanity Fair'' an ...

would be the star and he was scheduled to begin filming ''Green Light'' at the end of June 1935 after completion of his run in ''The Petrified Forest'' on Broadway. However, a persistent bout of

boils A boil, also called a furuncle, is a deep folliculitis, which is an infection of the hair follicle. It is most commonly caused by infection by the bacterium ''Staphylococcus aureus'', resulting in a painful swollen area on the skin caused by an ...

repeatedly hospitalized Howard throughout the production and forced him to withdraw. Warner Bros. then announced the leads as

and

Olivia de Havilland Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British and American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her tim ...

, but De Havilland withdrew and the female leads were announced as Anita Louise and Ann Dvorak. However, Dvorak was replaced by

. After starring in the

swashbuckling A swashbuckler is a genre of European adventure literature that focuses on a heroic protagonist stock character who is skilled in swordsmanship, acrobatics, and guile, and possesses chivalrous ideals. A "swashbuckler" protagonist is heroic, ...

films '' Captain Blood'' and '' The Charge of the Light Brigade'', Flynn asked Warner Bros. for a different type of role and was cast in ''Green Light'' as the result following Howard's withdrawal. However, Flynn would return to a swashbuckling role in his next film, ''

The Prince and the Pauper ''The Prince and the Pauper'' is a novel by American author Mark Twain. It was first published in 1881 in Canada, before its 1882 publication in the United States. The novel represents Twain's first attempt at historical fiction. The plot conce ...

''.

Reception

In a contemporary review for ''The New York Times'', critic

Frank S. Nugent Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer. He wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...

wrote that ''Green Light'' suffered in its transition to the screen: " is unable to disguise (as the novel did) the author's weakness as a story-teller. Mr. Douglas dealt with familiar, well-worn plot materials and he unraveled them more often by coincidence than by reason. It was chiefly the conversation—the readable, intelligent, even inspirational theorizing—of his characters that kept his narrative alive. ...

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

exposes serious structural weaknesses and probably will cause many who had not read the original to wonder what all the shouting was about." Released theatrically on February 20, 1937, ''Green Light'' was popular at the American box office. According to Warner Bros. records, the film earned $1,254,000 domestically and $416,000 foreign, making it the studio's second-most popular film of 1937 (the first was ''The Prince and the Pauper'').

Home media

The

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

, a made-on-demand disc branch of Warner Home Video, released the film on

DVD-R DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are a collection of optical disc formats that can be written to by a DVD recorder and by computers using a DVD writer. The "recordable" discs are write-once read-many (WORM) media, where as "rewritable" discs a ...

on November 10, 2010.

References

External links

* * * {{Frank Borzage 1937 films Warner Bros. films Films directed by Frank Borzage Films produced by Frank Borzage American black-and-white films American romantic drama films 1937 romantic drama films Films about medical malpractice Films set in Massachusetts Films set in Montana 1930s English-language films 1930s American films English-language romantic drama films