KLONDIKE (1932) Thelma Todd, Lyle Talbot & Henry B. Walthall | Adventure, Drama | B&W

Klondike is a 1932 American pre-Code film directed by Phil Rosen about a man who is put on trial for manslaughter after a surgery on a patient's brain goes awry. The film is also known as The Doctor's Sacrifice in the United Kingdom. It was silent film star Priscilla Dean's final film.

SYNOPSIS
Dr. Robert Cromwell performs a delicate operation that has never been done before, and the patient dies. He is charged with malpractice and manslaughter and his trial is national news, but the jury acquits him. But the court of public opinion is still against him, and the medical board will meet to decide whether or not to take his medical license away. Before they do, amateur pilot Cromwell decides to join his friend, WWI Ace Donald Evans, on a flight to Alaska looking for a shorter route to Japan by following the Aleutian Islands. They crash in Alaska and Evans is killed, but Cromwell is rescued by fur trapper Tom Ross. He takes Cromwell to Armstrong's Trading Post, where he is nursed back to health by Klondike, a girl who works for Armstrong and was engaged to marry Armstrong's son Jim, who is now suffering from the same disease that Cromwell's last patient had. Mark talks Cromwell into performing the same operation, and this time it's a success--or would have been if Jim hadn't decided to fake it being a failure.

Doctor Robert Cromwell (played by Lyle Talbot) is charged with murder when a patient dies after an experimental operation to remove a brain tumor.

His pilot friend, Donald Evans (Frank Hawks), convinces "Doc" to join him on a trans-Pacific trip as a means to start a new life. They plot a flight path across the Bering Strait, but rough weather blows them off course and they end up in Alaska.

There the doctor is faced with a new dilemma. Mark Armstrong (Henry B. Walthall) begs the doctor to attempt the operation on his son Jim (Jason Robards Sr.) who is crippled by a similar brain tumor. When the doctor refuses, Mark accuses him of wanting his son to die, because he is in love with Jim's fiancée, Klondike (Thelma Todd).

"Doc" acquiesces, at Klondike's insistence. Although having none of the facilities of a hospital, he believes that the operation is less likely to succeed, the longer it is delayed.

The operation seems to be a partial success. But now Jim will do anything to keep "Doc" from taking Klondike back to the States with him, even using his genius with electricity to electrocute him.

CAST & CREW
Thelma Todd as Klondike
Lyle Talbot as Dr. Robert Cromwell
Henry B. Walthall as Mark Armstrong
Jason Robards Sr. as Jim Armstrong
Priscilla Dean as Miss Porter
Tully Marshall as Editor Hinman
Patrick H. O'Malley, Jr. as Burke
Myrtle Stedman as Miss Fielding
Ethel Wales as Sadie Jones
George 'Gabby' Hayes as Tom Ross
Frank Hawks as Donald Evans

Directed by Phil Rosen
Written by Tristram Tupper (story, adaptation, dialogue)
Produced by William T. Lackey
Cinematography James S. Brown Jr., Archie Stout
Edited by Carl Pierson
Distributed by Monogram Pictures
Release date August 30, 1932
Running time 68 minutes
Country United States
Language English

NOTES
The film was remade as Klondike Fury (1942).

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