Sister Kenny

If you're not sick of the cult-like hero worship surrounding the so-called heroes on the so-called frontlines of coronavirus, you're in luck. TCM has decided to get in on the action with a spotlight on doctors in the movies. Every Thursday in September the prime time lineup will feature doctors. This first Thursday has medical researchers with multiple biopics. (Not all of tongiht's movies are biopics, however, as Arrowsmith is on at 2:15 AM.) One I haven't blogged about before is Sister Kenny, which will be on at 10:00 PM.

Rosalind Russell stars as Elizabeth Kenny, who returns home from nursing school to a small village in Queensland, Australia circa 1910. She's got a boyfriend who would like to marry her, and the feeling is mutual, in the form of Kevin Connors (Dean Jagger). However, on pretty much her first day home, she's called to attend to little Dorrie McIntyre (Doreen McCann). She's suffering from fever and some sort of horrendous muscle cramping that's left her paralyzed.

Now, if you were an audience in 1946 when the movie was released, you can probably guess the diagnosis. But Elizabeth didn't know and was only a nurse, not a doctor, so she telegraphs the doctors in the city hospital, Dr. McDonnell (Alexander Knox) and Dr. Brack (Philip Merivale) the symptoms and awaits the response. They unsurprisingly tell her that the child most likely has "infantile paralysis", which is a euphemism for polio, for which a vaccine wouldn't come until several years after the movie was released (and a few years after the real-life Kenny's death). Their advice is to treat the symptoms as best she can.

For Elizabeth, this means applying heat and then, figuring that one of the muscles in a muscle pair can't relax, use physical therapy to force the muscle to relax and then "re-educate" the muscles. Amazingly, this works, since little Dorrie is eventually able to get up and walk. And the local outbreak has several other cases of children who, with the same therapy, are also able to walk, something that medical science considered extremely abnormal to say the least.

So Elizabeth and the sympathetic Dr. McDonnell take Dorrie to see Dr. Brack to show him the results of her therapy. Dr. Brack, being an expert on poliomyelitis with a library full of books by other learned experts, is sceptical. He suggests that perhaps these children had something other than polio; to be fair, he didn't actually get to examine them personally when they were actually lying in bed paralyzed with fever. But there's also a strong helping of doctors looking to protect their own turf.

World War I comes and Kevin, not yet having married Elizabeth because she's been too busy applying the "Kenny method" to sick children, goes off to Europe to fight. Elizabeth takes time away from treating the children to help the soldiers in France, which is how she gets the title "Sister", that being used in Australia for a military nurse. But when World War I ends, she's still not going to marry Kevin, sacrificing a family for all those children who shouldn't have to grow up wearing leg braces.

As much as Sister Kenny continues promoting the "Kenny method" of treating children with polio, Dr. Brack and the rest of the medical establishment stand in firm opposition. A meeting with all of them doesn't work, with maybe one doctor other than McDonnell showing sympathy. So when America comes calling, off she goes to use the Kenny treatment on America's sick kids.

Sister Kenny is a well-made Hollywood biopic, although you have to be aware that it's a) a biopic and b) a Hollywood studio production, both of which mean there's a lot of baggage in terms of storytelling. I didn't know much about Elizabeth Kenny going in, and I'm not certain how much more I know having watched the movie. The movie clearly takes Kenny's side, seemingly never suggesting that the Kenny method might have had less than a 100% success rate. To be fair to Kenny, however, it seems as though she did have an important role in the field of physiotherapy. I can also see why the film might have resonated with audiences upon its 1946 release.

Regardless of how much embellishment the movie has, Rosalind Russell still does a very good job with her role, picking up an Oscar nomination in the process. The male actors are all in supporting roles and do them well. This being an RKO movie, the production values aren't quite up to what they'd be over at MGM, but they also don't detract from the movie. If you want a good example of a Hollywood biopic for all the strengths and flaws in the genre, Sister Kenny is a good movie to watch.