An idealistic young medical student, Martin Arrowsmith, asserts himself to Dr. Max Gottlieb, a noted bacteriologist. Though Gottlieb spurns Arrowsmith's desire to study with him, he is impressed by the young man's determination and honest self-appraisal, and encourages him to take the standard course of study instead. When Arrowsmith graduates, Gottlieb offers him a position as his research assistant, but the young man reluctantly turns him down, having fallen in love with a nurse, Leora, he would be unable to support on a research assistant's meager salary. He marries, and the couple sets off for Leora's rural home town in South Dakota. Unhappy with the vicissitudes of his medical practice there, he is drawn by a former client across the boundary into veterinary medicine when the man's cows are dying - even faster when given injections by the local state health official. Determined to find a cure of his own, he carries out scientific research in his kitchen, eventually developing a successful serum. Reinvigorated, he decides to abandon his practice and join Gottlieb as a research scientist at the renown and extremely wealthy McGurk Institute in New York. Meanwhile, Leora miscarries and, to the couple's sorrow is unable to have any more children, so she devotes herself to supporting her husband's career. After two fallow years at McGurk, Arrowsmith stumbles into an antibiotic serum that he does not understand yet has demonstrated the ability to kill at least one type of germ. He shortly is able to replicate it, and in order to study its efficacy on other microbes is sent to the West Indies where a virulent outbreak of bubonic plague has arisen. He is coincidentally teamed with a popular Swedish lecturer on "Heroes of Health" he once met while still in South Dakota, Dr. Gustav Sondelius, who is extremely enthusiastic over both the team and the serum's prospects to help cure the disease. Leora accompanies her husband, despite his fear for her safety. Arrowsmith has strict instructions from Gottlieb to employ the Scientific method in his efforts, conducting a blind study by administering the serum to one-half his patients and a placebo injection to the other. Upon hearing the doctor's intention upon his arrival, the Islands' governor, Sir Robert Fairland, refuses to allow him to proceed. Seeking to break the impasse, advance science, and ultimately further a cure for everyone, a black physician, Howard University educated Dr. Oliver Marchand, suggests Arrowsmith conduct his experiment in a backwater community on a neighboring island where the infection is rampant. Arrowsmith agrees, insisting Leona stay behind for her own protection. The study begins. Among those seeking an inoculation of Arrowsmith's serum is Mrs. Joyce Lanyon, a New Yorker stranded on the island who is attracted to Arrowsmith. He is to her as well, though their subsequent affair is only hinted at obliquely. Sondelius contracts the disease. In his death throes he pleads with Arrowsmith to abandon science and save as many lives as possible. Concerned about his wife's welfare, Arrowsmith asks Marchand to check on her upon his return to the main island, only to have his colleague die while on the phone before he can give his report. Arrowsmith races home, but it is too late and Lenora is dead. In a drunken delirium he turns the serum loose to all, saving the Indies from the plague. Upon his return to New York he is hailed by the press and feted by McGurk Institute head Dr. Tubbs, who seeks to share Arrowsmith's limelight and bask the Institute in reflected glory. Arrowsmith instead bypasses the hoopla and rushes directly to Gottlieb. Desperate to explain his abandonment of research principles and his mentor's specific mandate to conduct science rather than practice medicine, Arrowsmith discovers that Gottlieb has had a stroke, is insensible, and near death. Disgusted with all that is transpiring, friend and colleague Terry Wickett, a prominent chemist at the Institute, announces abruptly that he is quitting to set up his own "shoestring" laboratory to pursue science in an authentic environment. Recalling Gottlieb's challenge that any scientist worth his salt should be able to pursue his calling with no more than "two matchsticks and a piece of string" for a lab, Arrowsmith turns his back on public adulation, a promotion, and a fantastically lucrative raise to join forces with Wickett. Joyce Layton appears, seeking to rekindle their relationship, but he spurns her, committing himself to his career alone.
The film is only somewhat faithful to the novel, among other significant changes omitting Arrowsmith's serial womanizing, and completely skipping all mention of Arrowsmith's wealthy, self-centered second wife. Myrna Loy has only a few scenes with Colman, and their relationship is undeveloped to the point of being indecipherable. According to Robert Osborne, host of Turner Classic Movies, Helen Hayes claimed that as filming went on various scenes were dropped from the script without explanation. It is claimed that Samuel Goldwyn had hired director John Ford on condition that he not drink during the production. Allegedly Ford sped up filming at the expense of plot and continuity to get to a bottle.
Reaction
The film was a financial and critical success. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, Best Writing, Adaptation, Best Cinematography, and Best Art Direction..
