Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
Tags: historical

Plot synopsis:
Paul Ehrlich (Edward G. Robinson) is a physician working in a German hospital. He is dismissed for his constant disregard for hospital rules, which are bound by bureaucratic red tape. The reason for his conflict is his steadily rising interest in research for selective color staining, the marking of cells and microorganisms, using certain dyes and marking agents, which, as he describes in the film, have a certain 'affinity' to that which is to be stained and nothing else. Emil von Behring (Otto Kruger), whom Dr. Ehrlich meets and befriends, while experimenting with his staining techniques, is impressed with Dr. Ehrlich's staining methods and refers to it as 'specific staining,' adding that this is one of the greatest achievements in science, especially for diagnostic purposes, based on optical microscopy. After attending a medical presentation of one Dr. Robert Koch (Albert Basserman) showing that tuberculosis is a bacterial disease, Ehrlich is able to obtain a sample of the isolated bacterium. After an intense time of research and experimentation in his own lab, paired with a portion of luck, he is able to develop a staining process for this bacterium. This result is honored by Koch and medical circles as a highly valuable contribution to diagnostics.
During his work, Dr. Ehrlich is infected with tuberculosis, a disease still known as being deadly. Therefore, Ehrlich travels with his wife Hedwig (Ruth Gordon) to Egypt for recovery and relief. There he starts to discover the properties of the human body with regard to immunity. This discovery helps Ehrlich and colleague Dr. von Behring to fight a diphtheria epidemic that is killing off many children in the country. The two doctors are rewarded for their efforts.
Ehrlich concentrates on work to create his "magic bullets" - chemicals injected into the blood to fight various diseases, thus pioneering antibiotic chemotherapy for infectious diseases (later adopted by others to fight cancer). Ehrlich's laboratory has the help of a number of scientists like Sahachiro Hata (Wilfred Hari). The medical board, headed by Dr. Hans Wolfert (Sig Ruman), believes much of Ehrlich's work is a waste of money and resources and fight for a reduction, just as Ehrlich begins to work on a cure for syphilis. Ehrlich is financially backed by the widow of Jewish banker Georg Speyer, Franziska Speyer (Maria Ouspenskaya) and after 606 tries he finally discovers the remedy for the disease. This substance, first called "606", is now known as Arsphenamine or Salvarsan.
The joy of discovery is short-lived, as 38 patients who receive the treatment die. Dr. Wolfert denounces the cure publicly and accuses Ehrlich of murdering those who died from the cure. As faith in the new cure starts to dwindle, Ehrlich is forced to sue Wolfert for libel and in the process exonerate 606. Dr. von Bering (who had earlier told Ehrlich to give up his pipe dreams of cures by chemicals), is called by the defense to denounce 606. Von Bering instead states that he believes that 606 is responsible for the death of syphilis itself, the 39th death as he calls it. Ehrlich is exonerated, but the strain and stress from the trial are too much for his ill body and he dies shortly thereafter, first telling his assistants and colleagues about taking risks with regard to medicine.

Review: It's very hard to believe that this movie was made in 1940, as much of the plot centers on Dr. Ehrlich's attempts to create a cure for syphilis.
At times, the studio appeared to dance around the whole STD aspect of the disease, but it was extremely daring to try to cover such a taboo topic.It's actually quite amazing that a story as seemingly mundane and medical research is as compelling as it is.
This is based on the true story of Dr. Paul Ehrlich, a Polish born German bacteriologist that discovered the cure for syphilis.
Not only was Robinson in top form, but other cast members provided strong support: Otto Kruger, Ruth Gordon and Donald Crisp.
Of all the great biographical flicks Hollywood pumped out in the late 30's and early 40's, such as "Juarez," "The Story of Louis Pasteur," "Abe Lincoln in Illinois," and "The Life of Emile Zola," "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" is the best.
And that's saying a lot since the ones mentioned above are screen classics from the Golden Age. In "Magic Bullet" everything seems to gel, from the brilliant acting of all involved, including once-in-a-lifetime performances by Edward G.
On the other hand the problems Dr. Ehrlich faced in getting support for his magic bullet is comparable with problems faced by today's scientists in getting funding to do needed research to find a cure for AIDS.
The viewer may hesitate to watch at first when he/she discovers that the movie is about a German scientist who discovered an effective treatment for syphilis, but just pay attention for a few seconds and there is no turning back.
Due to the enormous talent, tenacity and courage of Dr. Paul Ehrlich to persevere in his quest to develop a cure for venereal disease, the world was made a safer place.
This outstanding biography relates Dr. Ehrilch's quest to conquer disease which plagued 19th century populations.Edward G.Robinson heads a fine cast, which recognized an outstanding script and rose to the occasion.
The story of Dr. Ehrlich from staining the tubercular germ through the development of his theory of combating disease with so called magic bullets of chemicals is inspiring.
Another great Hollywood Bio. I must echo the glowing comments about this fine film by William Dieterle.
Well made and accurate film illustrating the great efforts Dr. Ehrlich made in strict scientific method and his ability to comprehend disparate events.
Robinson as Dr. Paul Ehrlich, who works to create a cure for syphilis while battling tuberculosis and his peers' small-mindedness.
With direction by the great William Dieterle and a script co-written by John Huston, this is an exceptional film.
"Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" is the story of the groundbreaking Nobel prize winner Paul Ehrlich, credited with many discoveries still critical in the practice of medicine today, and perhaps most importantly, for finding the cure for syphilis.
But Ehrlich's story deserved telling, and you couldn't do it without using the word syphilis.The beginning of the film shows Dr. Ehrlich in Germany futilely treating patients who have the disease, though nothing can really help them.
It chronicles his rise up the scientific ranks through his use of staining organisms so that they could be seen under the microscope, his work in disease resistance, and finally, after long experiments with an arsenical compound - 606, in fact - the discovery of a cure for syphilis.For me, one reason to watch bios is that I develop interest in the subjects and seek out more information; after all, some Hollywood stories are less factual than others.
Though I'm sure a lot of Ehrlich's life had to be telescoped, the film certainly hits the highlights, and portrays him as a gifted scientist and vigorous innovator obsessed with his work.Edward G.
Robinson was always a good actor in the right role, but as Dr. Ehrlich, he is magnificent, totally immersing himself in the character and drawing the audience in.
Stage actress Ruth Gordon, for whom movie stardom was about 28 years off, gives a lovely, understated performance as Ehrlich's wife.
The rest of the cast is excellent, from Otto Kruger as a fellow scientist and friend, right down to a small role by Louis Calhern.The movie is a little too sentimental at times by today's standards, I suppose, but the only thing that really bothered me was the lack of presence of Ehrlich's daughters at the film's end.
How I long for the era when Hollywood was capable of producing films based upon the lives of great scientists and physicians.
Current moguls may consider the material too trite, but that just proves how they misjudge quality cinema.Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet is a great old biographical melodrama that probably does overstate certain emotional moments, nonetheless it helps recall the bigger-than-life accomplishments of scientists who otherwise would be forgotten.Edward G.
Robinson, though apparently too mature for the role, knew a good script when he read it, and ended up with the finest performance of his long career.
Credit goes to the Warner Studio, too, for making a film about the cure for syphilis when even the mention of the disease was prohibited in motion pictures.
Those who enjoy films like Edison, The Man will find this more involved with science and less with personal matters than the MGM/Spencer Tracy epic.This is grand Warner's entertainment with a lesson or two for all of us..
Dr. Ehrlich also discovered some amazing new ideas: dye for viewing bacterial slides and identifying those germs; the process of vaccination as a prevention against disease and the difficulty in changing the views of the medical community even with valid & objective scientific evidence.
Here he portrays German physician and researcher Paul Ehrlich, a pioneer at the turn of the 20th century in the treatment of infectious diseases and the man who found a cure for syphilis.
Robinson has excellent support here with Ruth Gordon playing Ehrlich's adoring wife.
Otto Kruger ably portrays Emil Adolf Von Behring, Ehrlich's friend and colleague who find himself at odds with his good friend's professional ideas at one point in their careers.The film was controversial at the time for mentioning the disease "syphilis" by name, and I'm sure a little bit of sensationalism is why Jack Warner thought that Dr. Ehrlich's biography would be good material for a film, but there's something more subtle going on here.
I guess these guys all got this from "an inanimate object" as Dr. Ehrlich says is possible at one point in the film to downplay the sexual transmission angle of this disease.
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) *** 1/2 (out of 4) John Huston co-wrote the screenplay and won an Oscar for it for this bio-pic from Warner.
He has to age several decades here but Robinson nails each stage of the doctor's life from his early days working in a hospital to his final days dealing with a trial over his syphilis serum.
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet came out in 1940 a year after Paul Muni's contract with Warner Brothers ended.
He never was even nominated and was given a posthumous tribute Oscar after his death in 1973.Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) was a pioneer scientist who discovered first the principle of staining microbes, the better to see them with under a microscope which was of inestimable value to research scientists still today.
But he's best known for discovering an effective cure for syphilis.The film opens in fact with Robinson as Ehrlich breaking the bad news to a young man that he now has it.
The rest of the film is spent in search of a cure for the disease which was not even mentioned in polite company.With the advent of the AIDS epidemic, scientists in the 1980s ran into the same prejudices that Ehrlich dealt with.
Robinson was in my humble opinion, unable to portray the Nobel winning scientist Dr. Paul Ehrlich with any credibility.
And yet, we the audience did not hear his explanation(s) to his gracious socialite hostess.I will say that Dr. Ehrlich was known to smoke more than a dozen cigars every day, and his office secretary was very close to him and appeared to know him best which is why her character was portrayed in this film as the caring employee when he took ill.
Robinson's portrayal of the famed Nobel prize winner Dr. Paul Ehrlich was delivered with sufficient preparation and final delivery of his lines to be regarded as authentic.I give the film a 4 out of 10 rating for it's historical value, but I had to take away points for the sub standard delivery of the biographical story of Dr. Paul Ehrlich by Edward G.
If you think Eddie Robinson only played tough little low lifes in Hollywood movies, this film shows that he could convincingly portray heroic scientific pioneers, as well.
However, his portrayal of pioneer medical researcher Paul Ehrlich is among the few of his performances that stays with me.
Just as Muni was born to play Louis Pasteur and Emile Zola, and Kirk Douglas to play Vincent van Gogh, I believe Robinson was born to portray Ehrlich.
Certainly, Robinson deserved an Oscar nomination for this role as well as for his riveting performance as Wolf Larsen in "The Sea Wolf", the following year.Now, there is the question of how many of the details of this film are based on fact.
As portrayed in the film, there was much controversy surrounding the safety, effectiveness and advisability of using Ehrlich's arsenical compounds for curing or preventing the transmission of syphilis.
EHRLICH'S MAGIC BULLET, is a biographical film about Professor Paul Ehrlich (1844-1915), a Nobel Prize Winner who revolutionised medical science in many ways.
Robinson certainly had the brains to appreciate someone like Ehrlich, which does help in portraying someone on screen.
This film was directed by the German immigrant William Dieterle, who four years earlier had directed another scientific biopic, THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR (1936), the same year also directed a film about the life of Florence Nightingale entitled THE WHITE ANGEL (1936), and the following year directed THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA (1937).
Immediately after finishing EHRLICH, he and Robinson teamed up to make THIS MAN REUTER aka A DISPATCH FROM REUTER'S (1940), about Julius Reuter, the founder of the Reuters News Agency, and two years later, Dieterle directed THE MAN ON AMERICA'S CONSCIENCE aka TENNESSEE JOHNSON (1942), about the life on Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who became President of the United States after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
The famous Maria Ouspenskaya, who worked under the direction of Stanislavski himself in Moscow, appears in this film in a supporting role as Frau Speyer, and of course is superb.
Donald Meek does a particularly good job of playing the sceptic Mittelmeyer, Ruth Gordon is excellent as Mrs. Ehrlich, and all the cast do well.
Nowadays,people know Ruth Gordon for her sensational parts of Minnie in "Rosemary's baby" and Maude in "Harold and Maude" ,but she was featured in many comedies and she was a writer too.Here ,this is an unobtrusive part,the doctor's admirable wife,supporting him every step of the way and cooking her delicious Kartoffel Puffer (potato pancakes)for him.Edward G.Robinson plays the part of a great scientist who devoted his entire life to relieve his fellow men's sufferings.Many users have noticed how his fight is still relevant today when AIDS (and cancer) are still causing terrible losses.This is an interesting movie ,even for these who,like me,are not really good at biology.Dieterle makes a veiled reference to these viewers in this scene when Ehrlich explains his theory to Mrs Speyer (the marvelous Madame Ouspenskaya): when he stops speaking,the large table is completely empty.The same year,Robinson made "A dispatch from Reuter's " with the same director.Both movies have similar endings when the heroes stand accused and then the facts vindicate them.
Warner Brothers filmed dozens of these historical based combinations of highly researched fact and Hollywood instilled fiction.
The lives of these subjects were not often interesting enough to stretch out a two hour movie so elements of romance and social drama were inserted to make them more entertaining for the public at large.George Arliss and Paul Muni dominated the 1930's with their portrayals of such loved (or despised) men like Disraeli, Voltaire, Alexander Hamilton, Louis Pasteur, Emile Zola and Juarez, and after years of playing gangsters or G-Men, Edward G.
Robinson went historical to play Dr. Paul Erlich, a physician who turned to research to help alleviate man's suffering.
Ruth Gordon, years from her wacky old ladies of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Every Which Way But Loose", is his mild-mannered wife who frets over his health and unknowingly ruins an experiment which actually creates major findings for the good doctor.Donald Crisp and Otto Kruger also deliver excellent performances as Robinson's colleagues, Kruger particularly memorable when he finds himself suddenly at odds with his long-time friend.
One of the highlights of the film is the scene where a group of doctors representing the money behind Robinsons' research show up only to be violently screamed at by him for making demands on his research he can't possibly commit to..
I really love the old 1930s-40s Warner Brothers Biographical films and this is one of the best.
Had this movie never been made I would never have heard of Dr. Paul Ehrlich, who led the way to find and defeat bacteria and micro-organisms.
Robinson is always good, but never more so as Dr. Ehrlich.
The story starts with Ehrlich's discovery of staining slides so the bacteria and micro-organisms are better defined and diseases diagnosed, which leads to creation of vaccines.
After finding a cure for diphtheria using inoculations, his colleagues still are skeptical and distrustful of him when he attempts to research man-made, chemical vaccines, which he calls "Magic Bullets".
A compassion-laden film about a true-life German Doctor seeking the cure to some of the world's worst ailments, including syphilis, polio and influenza.
Oh, they can bandy words like "syphilis" around all right (but significantly without once alluding to the fact that it is a sexually transmitted disease — in fact Ehrlich actually says in one scene that the disease can be contracted by other means), but when it comes to calling Ehrlich a Jew, the best the writers can manage is an oblique reference to Ehrlich's "faith" in a report from Rumann to Love.
OTHER VIEWS: Among all the plays and films in which I've appeared, I'm proudest of my role in Doctor Ehrlich's Magic Bullet.
I'll mention "Lawrence of Arabia." In this 30s film, Robinson is Paul Ehrlich (1854 - 1915), a famous medical researcher whose curriculum vitae must run to dozens of pages covering dyes for microorganisms, the treatment of diphtheria, and finally the first cure for syphilis, called Salvarsan, which antedated the discovery of penicillin by years.These old biographies from the 30s are really enjoyable, even the Nazi propaganda film on Robert Koch, who practically founded bacteriology.
Such social problems got the "Reefer Madness" treatment if they came up at all.Ehrlich has an argument mid-way through the film with his old friend and colleague Emil Behring.
He'd also directed "The Story of Louis Pasteur." (I'm telling you, there were a lot of biopics around.) Dieterle was a refugee from Nazi Germany and, in casting this film, he must have hired every German within a fifty mile radius of Hollywood.
Already, we get the first indication of reticence on the part of the movie to actually mention the word "syphilis."In the first scene, a young man enters Ehrlich's office for a physical examination.
A clue to what he is getting at comes with the following remark, "I've seen cases where it was transmitted by an inanimate object."In other words, most people get syphilis through sexual intercourse, which makes the disease shameful.
So, in the very act of telling him (and us) that the disease whose name he won't utter might have been contracted in a non-shameful manner, he is implicitly saying that the vast majority of cases of syphilis, which are contracted through sex, are not infections just like any other, but are in fact something to be ashamed of.After the examination, we see Ehrlich putting some substance into a jar for the man to apply to his skin.
He despairs that all the treatments he prescribes are useless, just something to give patients a false sense of hope.From this point, the movie follows Ehrlich through various medical discoveries.
The movie further provides us with an Arrowsmith situation, specific to medical science, in which the experiment requires that half the subjects get the serum or vaccine while the control group gets only a placebo or nothing at all; but in the name of humanity, the doctor ends up giving everyone the medicine, which saves their lives.
Of course, in these dramatic situations, there is always a de facto control group anyway, which is all the people who were dropping dead from the disease prior to the experiment.In any event, about one hour in, the word "syphilis" finally makes its way into the movie.
This is most fortunate, from a cinematic standpoint, because a trial is also a good way to dramatize science.In the end, however, Dr. Ehrlich was more successful in his struggle to defeat syphilis than the movie was in its struggle to defeat the shame that comes from contracting it..
Robinson with a well written formula script works very well in this one.Robinson plays the man who actually developed a magic bullet cure for Syphilis.
While the death scene at the end is pure Hollywood Hype, Robinson plays it well, and the rest of the film is a cut above many films.There are a lot of reasons this film is terrific, though we have now come a long ways from this miracle drug and even with more drugs developed, this one is not the total drug to cure it.
Watching Edward G Robinson in top form with a good script makes this movie well worth watching.