EMERGENCY HOSPITAL

John Archer and Margaret Lindsay

EMERGENCY HOSPITAL (1956). Director: Lee Sholem.

Dr. Janet Carey (Margaret Lindsay of Club Havana) is a very busy doctor at a state-run hospital during the night shift. Ben Caldwell (Byron Palmer of Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki) is a race car driver and playboy who wants Janet to give it all up and marry him, while Dr. Herb Ellis (John Archer) seems to be carrying a torch for Janet as well. Sgt. Paul Arnold (Walter Reed) is the police liaison with the hospital and he is on hand when his son, Jimmy (James Noah), is brought in after an accident and nearly winds up in a nasty incident between father and son. There are other assorted crises and patients during one long night.

James Noah and Walter Reed

Emergency Hospital looks like an especially gritty TV production, and in truth it's the kind of stuff that later wound up in many episodes of assorted medical shows -- life, death, accidents, diseases, assorted mini-dramas with some life lessons passed out by the staff. Lindsay is puffy-looking but gives a good performance, and Reed has some very good moments in the sequences with his son. Archer makes a positive impression as a decent guy who may just have to take a back seat to the flashier Caldwell, who is well-played by Palmer. Rita Johnson [Forty Little Mothers] scores as head nurse Norma Mullen.

The large cast also includes Rhodes Reason and William Boyett as traffic cops; Vera Francis as a lovely African-American nurse also named Vera; and Mary Carver, Maxine Gates, and Jan Englund as semi-hysterical patients.

Verdict: Too bad Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare don't put in an appearance. **3/4. 

MA AND PA KETTLE AT WAIKIKI

Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main

MA AND PA KETTLE AT WAIKIKI (1953). Director: Lee Sholem.

Pa Kettle's (Percy Kilbride) cousin, Rodney (Loring Smith of Shadow of the Thin Man), who once hoped to marry Ma (Marjorie Main) but instead stayed in Hawaii to run a pineapple business, has been told to take it easy by his doctor. Rodney and his associates decide to importune Pa -- whom they wrongly think is rich and successful -- to temporarily run the pineapple business in Honolulu until Rodney's health improves. They also think Pa's brilliance will put the company on the fast track again. Against all odds, the ever-lazy Pa seems to come up with schemes that enrich the firm's coffers. But then he's kidnapped and taken to an island where he thinks there's buried treasure.

Percy Kilbride as the lazy Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki starts out well with several amusing sequences revolving both around Pa's efforts at the pineapple plant and Ma's encounters with the snobby bank president's wife, Teresa Andrews (Mabel Albertson of The House That Would Not Die) and her condescending lady friends. Unfortunately, the flick falls apart in the second half with the introduction of the thoroughly uninteresting kidnappers (including Russell Johnson and Myron Healey) and the whole dull business with the treasure hunt. Even the insertion of a Hawaiian version of Ma and Pa and their huge brood doesn't help, but leads to even more tedious sequences when these characters attempt to rescue Pa with Ma's super-butch assistance and a lot of coconuts. Okay, there's a cute business with a crab but that's about it.

Lori Nelson returns as the Kettle's grown daughter, Rosie, and goes to Hawaii with them, and her new love interest is Bob Baxter (Byron Palmer), who works for Rodney Kettle. Birdie Hicks (Esther Dale) returns briefly and is back to hating Ma again, leading into a funny sequence involving an air-conditioner that doesn't work the way Pa intended. This script has Ma seeming much more stupid than usual.

Verdict: Some fun, but otherwise a disappointment. **1/4.