Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional American medical doctor, originally created in the 1930s by the author Frederick Schiller Faust under the pen name Max Brand. Shortly after the character's first appearance in a magazine story, Paramount Pictures used the story and character as the basis for the 1937 film Internes Can't Take Money, starring Joel McCrea as Jimmie Kildare. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer subsequently acquired the rights and featured Kildare as the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Several of these films were co-written by Faust, who also continued to write magazine stories and novels about the character until the early 1940s. Kildare was portrayed by Lew Ayres in nine MGM films. Later films set in the same hospital featured Dr. Gillespie. Ayres returned to voice the Kildare character in an early 1950s radio series. The 1961–1966 Dr. Kildare television series made a star of Richard Chamberlain and gave birth to a comic book and comic strip based on the show. A short-lived reboot of the TV series, Young Doctor Kildare, debuted in 1972 and ran for 24 episodes.
Magazine stories and novels
Original series
The author Frederick Schiller Faust, writing as Max Brand, created the character of Dr. James Kildare as a fictionalized version of his college friend, Dr. George Winthrop "Dixie" Fish, a New York surgeon. He first introduced the character in a short story, "Internes Can't Take Money", that appeared in the March 1936 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. A second Kildare story, "Whiskey Sour", was published in Cosmopolitan in April 1938. In these early stories, Dr. James "Jimmy" Kildare is an aspiring surgeon who leaves his parents' farm to practice at a fictional big-city hospital, and through his work, comes into contact with underworld criminals. The first Kildare film, Internes Can't Take Money, based on the short story of the same title and made by Paramount, followed this version of the character.In 1938, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contracted with Faust to acquire the rights to the Kildare character along with Faust's services as a film story writer. Faust then made major changes to the character to fit MGM's idea for a new movie series, including changing Kildare's specialty to diagnostics rather than surgery, introducing the character of Kildare's superior Dr. Leonard Gillespie, de-emphasizing the criminal elements, and restarting the story from Kildare's first arrival at the city hospital. Faust collaborated with MGM on its Kildare film series starting with the first MGM series release, Young Dr. Kildare and continuing through The People vs. Dr. Kildare. During this time, Faust wrote several original Kildare stories which were first published in magazines, later republished in novel form, and made into films by MGM. The stories were written prior to the films being made, and were not published as movie tie-ins.
After The People vs. Dr. Kildare, Faust and MGM parted ways. Faust was not involved in Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day, Dr. Kildare's Victory, or any of the subsequent films featuring Dr. Gillespie, although Faust continued to receive a credit for creating the characters. Faust's last two Kildare stories, "Dr. Kildare's Hardest Case" and the unfinished story "Dr. Kildare's Dilemma", were not made into films. In 1944, Faust was killed in Italy while working as a war correspondent.
Dr. Kildare story list
This table lists the Max Brand-authored Kildare stories in chronological order of first publication. Due to the continuing popularity of the characters in film, radio and television series, many reprints, different formats, and different versions of the original Kildare books have since been released.| Story title | Magazine publication | First book publication | Film based on story | Notes |
| "Internes Can't Take Money" | Cosmopolitan, Mar. 1936 | Included in The Collected Stories of Max Brand, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1994, pp. 218–235. | Internes Can't Take Money | First appearance of Dr. Kildare character, basis for first Kildare film, made by Paramount |
| "Whiskey Sour" | Cosmopolitan, Apr. 1938 | - | - | MGM acquired the rights to this story as a possible concept for a Kildare film, but it was never developed. |
| "Young Dr. Kildare" | Serialized in three parts in Argosy : Dec. 17, 1938 ; Dec. 24, 1938 ; Dec. 31, 1938 | Young Dr. Kildare, Dodd, Mead | Young Dr. Kildare | Basis for first film in Kildare series made by MGM, first appearance of Dr. Gillespie character |
| "Calling Dr. Kildare" | Serialized in three parts in Argosy : Mar. 25, 1939 ; Apr. 1, 1939 ; Apr. 8, 1939 | Calling Dr. Kildare, Dodd, Mead | Calling Dr. Kildare | Basis for second film in MGM series |
| "The Secret of Dr. Kildare" | Cosmopolitan, Sept. 1939 | The Secret of Dr. Kildare, Dodd, Mead | The Secret of Dr. Kildare | Basis for third film in MGM series |
| "Dr. Kildare's Girl" | Photoplay, Apr. 1940 | Dr. Kildare's Search, Dodd, Mead | Dr. Kildare's Strange Case | Basis for fourth film in MGM series |
| "Dr. Kildare Goes Home" | Serialized in four parts in Argosy : Jun. 1, 1940 ; Jun. 8, 1940 ; Jun. 15, 1940 ; Jun. 22, 1940 | Dr. Kildare Goes Home, Dodd, Mead | Dr. Kildare Goes Home | Basis for fifth film in MGM series |
| "Dr. Kildare's Crisis" | Serialized in four parts in Argosy : Dec. 21, 1940 ; Dec. 28, 1940 ; Jan. 4, 1940 ; Jan. 11, 1941 | Dr. Kildare's Crisis, Dodd, Mead | Dr. Kildare's Crisis | Basis for sixth film in MGM series |
| "The People vs. Dr. Kildare" | Cosmopolitan, May 1941 | Dr. Kildare's Trial, Dodd, Mead | The People vs. Dr. Kildare | Basis for seventh film in MGM series, last collaboration between Faust and MGM |
| "Dr. Kildare's Hardest Case" | Cosmopolitan, Mar. 1942 | Dr. Kildare's Search, Dodd, Mead | - | Faust's last complete Kildare story. |
| "Dr. Kildare's Dilemma" | Published in two parts in The Faust Collector, a Los Angeles fanzine edited by William Clark: Feb. 1971 ; Jan. 1973 | A restored fragment was included in The Max Brand Companion, Greenwood Press, 1996, pp. 318–335. | - | Faust's last Kildare story, never finished, posthumously published in the 1970s in unfinished form |
Aside from the Kildare stories, Faust wrote only one other medical story, "My People", which appeared in the August 1940 issue of Cosmopolitan''. "My People" featured a character, "Dr. Maynard", who was similar to Dr. Kildare. MGM acquired the rights to "My People" as a possible concept for a Kildare film, but it was never developed.
Television tie-ins
The popularity of the 1960s Dr. Kildare TV series and its star, Richard Chamberlain, resulted in a number of contemporary tie-in novels by several different authors. Several were released in mass-market paperback form by Lancer Books, while titles aimed at preteen and young teen readers were published by Whitman Publishing. The covers featured photographs of Chamberlain as Kildare, or artwork using his likeness. Known titles are listed below.By Robert C. Ackworth:
- Dr. Kildare
- Dr. Kildare: Assigned to Trouble
- Dr. Kildare's Secret Romance
- Dr. Kildare's Finest Hour
- Dr. Kildare: The Faces of Love
- Dr. Kildare: The Heart Has an Answer
- ''Dr. Kildare: The Magic Key''
Films
''Internes Can't Take Money''
The character of Dr. Kildare first appeared on film in the 1937 Paramount film, Internes Can't Take Money, based on Max Brand's previously published short story of the same name and starring Joel McCrea as Dr. Kildare. The plot focuses on Dr. Kildare's attempt to help a young female ex-convict locate her child. Paramount did not plan any further Kildare films, probably because box-office returns did not meet expectations.MGM film series (1930s–1940s)
had noted the popularity of the Kildare character in pulp magazines and, following the release of Internes Can't Take Money, saw an opportunity to obtain an undervalued property and develop a successful film series. In 1938, MGM entered into a deal with author Faust to acquire the rights to Dr. Kildare and have Faust work with MGM on developing stories for a film series. Seven Dr. Kildare films were subsequently made by MGM based on stories originally written by Faust. After The People vs. Dr. Kildare, Faust and MGM ended their collaboration and MGM continued the series using stories by other writers, though Faust still received a credit for creating the characters.In the MGM series, the Dr. Kildare character first appears as a medical intern newly arrived at a New York City hospital, where he attracts the attention of a respected older physician and skilled diagnostician, Dr. Leonard Gillespie. After becoming a physician, Kildare faces a number of professional and personal challenges in the course of his work, while being mentored by Gillespie.
In 1942, during the making of the tenth film in the MGM series, originally titled Born to Be Bad, Ayres was drafted to serve in WWII and declared himself a conscientious objector. The resulting negative publicity caused MGM to cut Ayres from the film, eliminate the character of Kildare, and change the film's focus to Barrymore's character Gillespie, eventually releasing the revamped film as Calling Dr. Gillespie. Dr. Kildare simply vanished from the series, without explanation, and for Calling Dr. Gillespie the character of a young doctor mentored by the experienced Dr. Gillespie was played by Philip Dorn. MGM made several more films featuring the Dr. Gillespie character mentoring various young doctors played by Van Johnson, Keye Luke, and James Craig. After leaving the series, the character of Kildare was never seen, heard or so much as mentioned in any of the subsequent films.