Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26867 in VHS
• Released on: 1993-11-10
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Running time: 135 minutes

Customer Reviews

Lush Ode to the Hippocratic Oath & True Love
"Not as a Stranger" was an unexpected pleasure once I got past the shock of seeing Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin (or his twin)as medical students staring down from tiered seating at a lecturing doctor. Oh, my, I thought, that is NOT a town in which to get sick! I was reeling from mis-casting shock for a number of minutes into the movie, but then Hollywood starting luring me into enjoyment of the performances of these actors cast against type. Bob Mitchum, the penniless son of a hopeless alcoholic (a very WELL-cast Lon Chaney, Jr., alas, in a sad role)wants to be a doctor more than any of his fellow colleagues, many of whom dream of big future salaries and big old 50's cars, in order to set the world right. This strikes me as a realistic characteristic of a child of an alcoholic, who's had chaos thrust upon him and wants to put it back in its place. The fact that Bob Mitchum doesn't look like any doctor most folks would imagine actually starts working for him--he does look Proletarian, he does look like someone who's had a rough time heretofore, and he definitely looks like someone with the physical strength to stand up to a doctor's rigorous career demands. Moreover, Frank Sinatra plays the indulged but basically good-hearted son of a rich man who is in med school to score money afterwards convincingly; he WAS a good actor and I came to enjoy his presence in the role. There is A LOT of information in the film about what a good doctor should know and how difficult the job is; done correctly, medical practice is a, don't laugh, noble calling and the film promotes this view. It also, however, acknowledges the presence of greed and mediocrity among medical men and hospital administrators, so there is a sensible balance between ideal and real. Now, as to the true love aspect, Olivia DeHaviland does a wonderful job as the Swedish-American nurse who loves and supports (and I do mean financially as well as emotionally)Bob Mitchum's young doctor. This is another one of those films in which the luminous, beautifully put-together Ms. DeHaviland is supposed to be, cough! cough!, plain--homely, declasse, etc. Yes, her platinum blonde hair is pulled tight enough to break and the make-up is laid on very sparingly, but for heavens sake why did Hollywood think this woman wasn't a raving beauty? I think perhaps the sincerity with which she played gentle women of character and responsibility is partly to blame for her being cast as un-glamorous. It apparently was as hard to reconcile "good" with "sexy" in olden Hollywood as it is now, sigh...Anyway, the nurse sincerely loves her doctor despite her growing awareness that he considers her more of a convenience than anything else, and for me the romantic tension was not so much in the doctor cheating with the horsy rich vavoom girl as in wondering if the fool man would ever realize what he has at home. Watch this beautifully shot, lush, 50's drama and find out. And enjoy all those character actors and actresses, such as Harry Morgan playing a flat-affected Swede with a wonderful poker face.

One of the first of the medical reality movies
Although many of the scenes in this epic would be judged "hokey" by modern standards, "Not As a Stranger" was one of the first films to give viewers a factual look inside the medical profession and challenge the god-like nature of physicians. Mitchum plays a young man with many personal "issues," who tries to work them out by driving himself to become a stellar doctor. Sinatra plays an uncharacteristically "second banana" role as a stalwart physician-friend to Mitchum and DeHavilland. Broderick Crawford is the demanding and idealistic medical school professor who inspires Mitchum, Bickford is the long-suffering and self-sacrificing family doctor whose practice Mitchum joins, and DeHavilland and Grahame are the two women in his life. DeHavilland represents many doctors' wives through the decades, who were chosen as spouses because of the stability and respectability they offered... not because of love. The anguish this causes DeHavilland in the film is poignantly representative of many other real-life women in her position. Gloria Grahame is also another stereotype of the 1950s, playing a rich, bored, depressed widow who acts out on her pain with sexual promiscuity (which is only referenced in a veiled fashion in this movie). In the end, Mitchum fails himself and his friend and mentor, Bickford, by failing to save Bickford's life when he has a medical crisis of his own. The shattering effect this event has on Mitchum is emphasized by the fact that the only person he can turn to in his grief is his wife, DeHavilland, whom he does not love and who does not love him.

A fine sleeper of a film that shouldn't be missed.
The film is a sleeper. Robert Mitchum is its star convincingly playing a man so determined to be a doctor and save lives that he doesn't care about the lives of those closest to him who love him. A great cast of actors and character actors: Robert Mitchum, Olivia DeHavilan, Frank Sinatra, Lee Marvin, Broderick Crawford, Charles Bickford, Gloria Grahame, Lon Chaney Jr., and Jesse White (the original TV Maytag repairman). It has terrific dialogue and one of the most passionate love scenes, although it only shows a kiss (and a pretty excited stallion).