This movie is so good that it transcends the sentimentality of the era and the distraction of Dutch subtitles and substitute graphics (you can figure them out) on the only extant print.Three things struck me:First, we know Edward Ellis as the title character (Winant) from The Thin Man. He was compelling, but of course got bumped off early. It was a pleasure to see Ellis in almost every scene of this movie.Second, Anne Shirley was just as sweet and lovely as an ingénue here as she'd been, playing a little girl, in Anne of Green Gables.Third, the movie did not succumb to Hollywood's conventional insistence on redemption. Most characters were greedy, parsimonious ingrates, from beginning to end. I think the social conscience of Garson Kanin and Dalton Trumbo had something to do with it.Here is a forgotten gem, whose preservation fans of American cinema should be grateful for.

Man to Remember, A (1938) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Remake of One Man's Journey, which I watched a few days ago. This time Edward Ellis plays a country doctor who grows old and poor because of his kind heart, which won't allow him to turn away sick people even if they don't have the money to pay him. Garson Kanin directed the screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and it's pretty faithful to the original movie. The fact that it's too faithful is the only real problem with the picture because if you've seen the original then you know everything that's going to happen here. Other than that I'd say this version is somewhat better as the story is better laid out and there's a new opening and closing, which suits the story very well. Ellis is terrific in his role and brings a lot of class and warmth to his character.

Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay for this sentimental tale of an unselfish country doctor who cared for rich and poor alike. EDWARD ELLIS is Dr. John Abbott and little DICKIE JONES is his son. Jones was the little boy who supplied the voice for Disney's PINOCCHIO. When an orphan girl is left on Ellis' doorstep, the orphan girl grows up to be ANNE SHIRLEY and LEE BOWMAN is the grown-up Dickie Jones.It's a leisurely tale that moves slowly without the usual melodramatics one might expect in a story of a country doctor--with the only dramatic touch coming well past the midway point with a possible epidemic of infantile paralysis causing the doctor to advise the townspeople to cancel the upcoming country fair. His theory meets with resistance until the feared outbreak occurs and then the townspeople can't thank him enough for all his work.There's a Frank Capra feel to this kind of story, but director Garson Kanin keeps it pretty well in command and prevents the sentimentality from becoming too thick.Summing up: Good, but not quite the inspiring yarn it was intended to be thanks to below level production values and rather routine performances.

This is one of the great unheralded films...called movies in those days...of the century. I saw it the age of 10 and it remained clearly in my mind for 50 years. Now that IMDB has refreshed my memory with the names of the director (Garson Kanin) and screenwriter (Dalton Trumbo), I understand why it remains one of my favorites in the entire history of the cinema.