Once to Every Woman (1934)

Ralph Bellamy and Fay Wray shine as an up and coming and acclaimed surgeon and the head nurse of a hospital ward, respectively.

The film, courtesy of director Lambert Hillyer, fuses romantic melodrama, hospital drama and moral tales most effectively as the film plot moves seamlessly between them.

There are a few moments that we get some information and a scene that are there simply for atmosphere (one of the hospital patients, to be specific) and ultimately don't come back to have any bearing on the plot.

But those are far outweighed by subplots that do indeed have major effects on the main plot, and are done organically and most effectively.

Walter Connolly powerfully plays the head surgeon who has his own set of problems and arc that lends moral and touching weight to the film.

Being pre-code, it explores tensions of a sexual nature in ways that only a few months later wouldn't have been possible under the Hays Code, and that's one of the reasons it stands out. The other is, it often takes what the cliché of the drama would have been, and does the opposite.

This film deserves more recognition and it's a major disservice that it has never had a home video release. Here's to hoping!