Olivia deHavilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, and Charles Bickford star in "Not as a Stranger," the story of an arrogant young man (Mitchum) and his quest to become a great, godlike doctor. Along the way, he learns something about becoming a human being.
What a cast - Lon Chaney, Jr. even has a minor role as Mitchum's drunken father. Mae Clarke is a nurse. Harry Morgan plays a big eater, Virginia Christine his wife. If you look fast, you'll spot Lee Marvin and also Jerry Paris from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Mitchum and Sinatra are old to be medical students - Sinatra was 40 and Mitchum, 38. Mitchum is nevertheless very effective as an arrogant but poor man desperate to become a doctor - so desperate, in fact, that when he finds out that nurse deHavilland has $4,000 in the bank, he romances and marries her. Once out of medical school, he joins a country practice headed by Charles Bickford and meets sexy, lonely Gloria Grahame - and you nearly can see the sparks. Both actors had hot presences, both oozed sex appeal - I would have loved to have seen them in a star teaming instead of a subplot.
This is a very good film - perhaps overly long - but it still holds interest because of the performances and the characters they play. It's very much the story of Mitchum's character and evolution and his marriage to deHavilland. In these days of special effects, a character-driven story is refreshing.
All the performances are good, Sinatra supplying the wisecracks as a loyal friend of Mitchum's and the only one who understands him. There have been comments that he was miscast. There is such a thing as a society doctor, however, and the Sinatra character was on the track, so I didn't find his characterization that unrealistic.
The towering performance, of course, comes from Olivia deHavilland as Kris, a simple Swedish nurse who falls in love with Mitchum and marries him, only to find it isn't much of a relationship. I say "of course" because in my opinion, deHavilland was one of the great actresses of the classic era, capable of playing a wide variety of roles and in different genres. Sweet and gentle as Melanie, plain, in love, and bitter in "The Heiress," a petulant ingénue in "It's Love I'm After," a young beauty in "The Adventures of Robin Hood," elegant but tough in "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte," she's letter-perfect as Kris. She is believable from the time she comes on camera with her unattractive blond hairdo, her accent, her plain ways, and her shyness. As Sinatra points out, she's not doctor's wife material - no parents who belong to a country club, no class - "She should marry a farmer," he says. 38 when the film was made, deHavilland is totally sympathetic as Mitchum criticizes her for not being smart and turns his back on her, not realizing her value as a wife and as a woman.
A very good movie. Recommended.
