ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by running the rule over a couple of films that feature ersatz medics, before moving on to two that put 'real' medical practice at the centre of their stories. There are some ingredients of the film that will sit uneasily with modern audiences, and it is evidently the product of a particular brand of post-war liberal sensibility, but both its trenchant critique and its enlightened alternative remain apropos. Nobody ever said that the practice of medicine was simple, although sometimes one gets the impression that nobody ever said that it wasn't either, judging by the over-confidence of some of its practitioners. Cinema is one way in which society gets to express its displeasure with these would-be supremos. Dr Noah Praetorius is a doctor who understands his role in the world, and has neither too high nor too low an opinion of himself. He is no less fictional than the pretenders.
