Details
Movie Description
That there was once a time when a modestly budgeted film about a selflessly idealistic scientist could become a hit is a disquieting reflection on our present state of affairs. Paul Muni won an Oscar for his excellent performance in this intelligently melodramatic biography of the great bacteriologist. It follows Pasteur's career from the early 1860s, when, in response to the entreaties of the French government he developed a method of preserving beer and wine. At the same time, he's angering the medical community by insisting that the high rate of infant mortality is caused by bacteriological infection that could be prevented by the simple expedient of having doctors wash their hands--and by accusing those who don't of killing their patients. Louis Napoleon orders him silenced, and he's forced to leave Paris. A decade passes and the sheep of France are being killed off by anthrax. President Thiers orders an investigation of a rural area that remains untouched by the plague and discovers Pasteur has vaccinated the local sheep. The initial derision of scientists is soon silenced by experiments that prove the method effective. Despite this success, a challenge remains in the person of his archrival, Dr. Charbonnet (Fritz Leiber). Given the seriousness of its subject, the film's rapid, melodramatic style seems slightly dated, but Muni is close to his peak here, and the film remains an absorbing, and even moving, profile of a towering figure of science.
Synopsis
This stirring biography of the great scientist was the first in a series of such Warner Bros. films that would prove highly successful. Starring Paul Muni as the courageous immunologist, it begins with his early solution to France's problem with acidic wine, for which he gains great favor. However, when he suggests that the appalling infant mortality rate could be slashed if doctors would sterizilize medical equipment, he's treated as a fool. Yet he continues to do battle with the scientific and medical establishment as he searches desperately to cure the ravages of anthrax and hydrophobia.
Film Notes
Co-produced by Cosmopolitan.
Additional cast: Raymond Brown (Dr. Radisse); Ruth Robinson (Mrs. Meister); and Herbert Corthell (President Thiers).
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