Bad for Each Other

Maybe if John Garfield had been cast instead of Charlton Heston (who looks and moves like Frankinstein's monster here); and if the producers (writers? director?) had not backed away from the mine safety, health, and company criminal negligence theme that packs a punch in the first ten minutes of the movie.

This ho-hum drama directed by Irving Rapper has a young doctor torn between money and deep down dedication. Dr. Tom Owen(Charlton Heston)is a Korean War veteran that returns to his hometown, a Pennsylvania coal mining community. After meeting a spoiled, rich daddy's girl, Helen Curtis(Lizabeth Scott), Owen will have to decide between treating wealthy women with imaginary ailments; or remain being a small down doc tending the poor and indigent. To make Owen's situation more complex is a pretty, idealistic nurse, Dianne Foster(Joan Lasher). It doesn't take very long to figure where this story leads. Other players include: Ray Collins, Rhys Williams, Arthur Franz, Lester Matthews and Mildred Dunnock.

Horace McCoy must have been outraged that his unpublished 1952 novel 'Scalpel' reached the screen under the 'naughty' title Columbia saddled it with; especially as high maintainance blonde bullet Lizabeth Scott's presence barely even constitutes a subplot compared to the scenes between Charlton Heston and Diane Foster which provide the film with it's heart. It's been compared to 'The Citadel', but the subject matter also rather resembles 'The Best Years of Our Lives' and Ealing Studios' 'Cage of Gold'. The studio shies away, however, from the potentially provocative nature of the material, and the suspiciously short running time (and the abbreviated appearance by Arthur Franz in a role that approximates to the client Novak in Wyler's film) indicates some drastic pruning and back-peddling before they felt able to release it to cinemas.

This Columbia film is an abbreviated reworking of MGM's THE CITADEL (1938). In THE CITADEL a young doctor treats miners in Wales, but then sells out to treat rich hypochondriacs in London, before rediscovering his ethics in the end. In BAD FOR EACH OTHER, it's miners in Coalville vs. rich women in Pittsburgh. There are many other similarities, although BAD reshuffles the plot elements into a shorter running time. A mine disaster sequence, common to both films, is egregiously duplicated in BAD, including some shots which are near-identical. It's close to plagiarism. THE CITADEL is a great film, while BAD is merely entertaining. Just don't watch them within a month of each other, as I accidentally did.