Debut
Stanley Kramer made his directorial debut with this film that told how Lucas Marsh, an ambitious and poor medical student, falls in love with the head nurse of the operating room knowing that she can pay for his studies
When Stanley Kramer debuted as a director with ‘You will not be a stranger’, he had already been established as a producer for years. In addition to producing his first feature himself. ‘You will not be a stranger’ has the virtue of inaugurating a subgenre that has given much of itself, the melodramas of doctors, both in film and, especially on television.
Stanley Kramer (New York, September 29, 1913 – Los Angeles February 19, 2001) created in the famous neighborhood of Manhattan known as ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and from a very young age he was attracted to the cinema, first as a spectator and , later as part of the industry. His uncle, Earl Kramer, who worked in film distribution for Universal Pictures, and his mother was a secretary at Paramount. So when Kramer finished his studies at New York University, he received an offer to work in the scriptwriting department at 20th Century Fox. Of course, his mother and uncle had something to do with it. In 1941, he already works as a production assistant, but two years later, Kramer is mobilized by the army and works in the film units of New York. In 1948 he created an independent production company, Screen Plays Inc. His partners in the company are the screenwriter Herbie Baker, the publicist George Glass and the famous producer Carl Foreman, whom he had met during the war.
Thus, little by little, Kramer began to produce films of other complexity, achieving notable successes, such as ‘Hombres’, ‘Only before danger’ or ‘The mutiny of Caine’, with which he said goodbye to his role as producer to begin the adventure of directing (although he would continue to produce his own works). Kramer had read a Morton Thompson best-seller titled “You Will Not Be a Stranger” and observed that it contained an excellent film, with a not very well known subject, medical melodrama. In it, the complex and strained relationships between two medical professionals were portrayed, inasmuch as they put interest in their profession above all else.
Although ‘You will not be a stranger’ had a moderate budget, knowing that it was mostly a character story, Kramer, who also produced the film, was concerned about hiring the best actors who agreed not to charge so much as to destabilize the budget: Olivia de Havilland, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Grahame, and Broderick Crawford. The film is shot in three months of 1954 in Los Angeles. The film told how Lucas Marsh (Mitchum), an ambitious and resourceless medical student, falls in love with the head nurse of the operating room, Kristina Hedvigson (Olivia de Havilland), knowing that she can pay for his studies. She loves him passionately, but Lucas only lives for his job. After completing his degree, he began to work for a doctor in a small town, where he went with his wife, where he met Harriet (Gloria Grahame), a rich woman with whom he began a relationship. Kristina discovers the truth and even hides the upcoming birth of a child from her.
The film has a great dramatic force that Kramer handles with ease. Despite not being the most famous film of any of the protagonists, ‘You will not be a stranger’ maintains at all times the narrative firmness of classic Hollywood. The film opens in New York in June 1955, reaching a gross of more than two million dollars. The film is nominated for an Oscar for best sound and establishes Stanley Kramer as a very solvent director. The film opens in Madrid on November 21, 1955, and two months later in Barcelona. From here Kramer undertakes much more ambitious productions, such as ‘Pride and Passion’, which shoots in Spain, and blockbusters such as ‘The final hour’, ‘Winners or losers?’ or ‘The world is crazy, crazy, crazy’. Starting in the 70s, ‘You will not be a stranger’ would be the model for series such as’ Medical Center ‘, Marcus Welby’ or ‘Emergency’.
.