The story is based on a play by Theodore Reeves, and it is set in a generic fictional establishment called Metropolitan Hospital. It is probably more a continuation of the studio's earlier hit MEN IN WHITE (1934), and it sets the stage for YOUNG DR. KILDARE (1938).
However, this offering is different because the head doctor is not middle-aged like Jean Hersholt or Lionel Barrymore in those other two pictures. Instead, he is young and handsome and appears on screen in the form of Chester Morris, known for gritty crime stories. The young intern, meanwhile, is not played by Clark Gable or Lew Ayres, but by a new studio contractee named Robert Taylor.
The guys are featured shirtless within the first few minutes of the film, cleaning up after an operation. Eye candy for movie patrons. Successive scenes show Morris and Taylor in a triangle with a lovely nurse (Virginia Bruce) who just assisted in the operating room.
On-screen dilemmas involve an assortment of unusual characters. This part resembles the formula for Kildare, Marcus Welby, Trapper John and other medicos that would become popular with audiences.
A patient undergoes surgery despite his father's objections. This leads to Morris being fired, then reinstated. Basically, his conflict is-- does he want to be right, or does he want to remain on the right side of the hospital administrator (Raymond Walburn)? Faced with the prospect of career uncertainty, he toys with the idea of leaving public medicine and starting his own private practice.
Billie Burke plays a charming society matron who in her days before Glinda waves an imaginary wand and says she will set Morris up in his own lucrative practice. She has developed a crush on him, and she's eager to fund a new facility and provide all the necessary equipment while referring her rich friends to him for pills and such!
It's interesting to see the lead doctor embroiled in hospital politics, going against the establishment before such things became fashionable decades later. There is also considerable commentary on how big money interests control the medical profession, points that are just as relevant now as they were then.
Chester Morris is a skilled actor who successfully puts across the arrogance and idealism of his character. Robert Taylor, at the beginning of his 28-year association with Metro Goldwyn Mayer, shows promise with his performance. His style did not evolve much. The guys may be competing over the same girl, but there is camaraderie and friendship on display. Especially when "Sprout" (Morris' nickname for Taylor) must conduct emergency surgery on his boss/pal/rival who's been shot by a gangster trying to elude police.
The story dramatically shifts gears in the last ten minutes. It suddenly turns into an ironic case of the head doctor becoming his protege's patient.
Overall, this is an engrossing and well-written film with sincere performances. SOCIETY DOCTOR perfects a formula that would be used for the many Kildare pictures which followed, as well as the countless television medical programs that came afterward.