Medical films were in vogue when this film was made in 1958.the doctor films were in full swing.carry on nurse would shortly go before the cameras.emergency ward 10 was popular on itv.most of these titles were very entertaining which is more than can be said for this film.It concerns itself more with hospital politics than treatment.Tony Britton makes a mistake tending to a drug addict doctor rather than a patient who as a result dies.Britton agrees to carry the can in a rather unlikely scenario particularly since he had already been complicit in the schemes of Michael Redgarve as his future son in law.Britton is by chance engaged to his daughter played by Vanessa Redgarve in her first role.She is terribly aloof and about as appealing as a plate of cold mashed potatoes.the film is far too talky and overlong.Some entertaining character actors are unable to raise the tempo.
Behind the Mask
1958
Action / Drama
Behind the Mask
1958
Action / Drama
6.1Plot summary
Philip Selwood has just passed his final exams for the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and has immediately secured a job as registrar at a teaching hospital under well respected Sir Arthur Benson-Gray, who happens to be his imminent father-in-law in Sir Arthur's daughter, Pamela Benson-Gray, having accepted his proposal of marriage. In the job offer for which Philip had to "compete", Sir Arthur asks Philip to postpone announcement of the engagement in not wanting to appear that the offer is a case of nepotism, which it is in part in some employment candidates rightly believing it's not what you know, but who you know. One of the employment candidates with that belief is native Pole Carl Romek, who, in having an Eastern European accent on top of everything else, has been passed over for job after job, he applying for the other open position at the hospital of anesthetist. Romek is surprised to get the job, although he is unaware that he only got it in a power play between Sir Arthur and his chief rival surgeon, Neil Isherwood. Philip demonstrates that he was the correct choice not only in his knowledge and skill as a surgeon, but in his humanistic approach to the patients, while Carl may be another matter in the unknown heavy baggage which he brings affects how he does his job. In Philip wanting to help Carl in being his friend, Philip risks his own position at the hospital and threatens his relationships with both the Benson-Grays in the process.
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Talky medical drama
Minor Surgery
Michael Redgrave's name on the opening credits is usually as good as money in the bank but even class acts are entitled to an off day and this is a doozy. It is, of course, possible he was worrying about real life daughter Vanessa making her debut in front of the camera in this extremely ho hum entry in which virtually the entire cast - Tony Britton, Niall McGuiness, Miles Malleson, Lionel Jeffries - either walk though their roles and/or phone them in. The plot would be an embarrassment on Crossroads and needs only Paul Carpenter and Arthur Mullard to attain mediocrity. Even major surgery can't save this piece of cheese.
Surgical Theatre
A serious film with an appropriate cast that fails to live up to its initial promise. Tony Britton is a promising young surgeon who becomes engaged to the senior surgeon's daughter (the young Vanessa Redgrave giving a rather precious performance.) Retrospective interest is added by the manners of the period, not least hospital staff who ceaselessly smoke everywhere with carefree abandon. Gradually though the story evolves into two strands, neither resolved particularly successfully. The first, Britton's involvement with a drug-addicted Polish colleague which lands him in serious trouble and in which he is then portrayed as becoming virtuous and altruistic to an improbable degree, is trite. The second, regarding the senior surgeon's deep concerns about his junior, played by the talented Niall MacGinnis (whom as well as being a first-rate character actor was also a qualified physician),is opaque as nothing is shown to justify his fears, though it looks as if we are intended to sympathise with them.