Original subtitles

- [Narrator] San Francisco, 1851, a town of violence,

over 1,000 murders in one year,

murder by gun and murder by knife

and murder by quackery, murder by charlatans

who call themselves doctors of medicine,

men who had no training and no conscience,

who advertise speedy relief for the sick

and relieve them only of their money.

- Ah, good morning to you.

Well, I see you've come over

to greet our personal croaker, huh?

- Jack, that's no way to talk about a professional man.

- He'll have to be some professional

to last with the local quacks.

- Oh, I'm sure that he will.

After all, it was your campaign in the store

that's bringing him out here.

- Well isn't it time we had a good man

to fight charlatans like Dr. Harold Rodman?

- Mm, past time.

You know something, this might be the man to do it too,

if he's half as good as he sounds.

- Yeah.

The question is, can he fight?

- Well you read his letters just the same as I did.

From the tone of them, yeah, I'd say he's a fighter.

That stage is late, isn't it?

- As usual.

Oh, here it comes now.

(hooves pattering) (coach rattling)

- [Man] Whoa.

- Mr. McGivern.

- Yes?

- I believe you're expecting me, I'm Dr. Kendall.

- Oh no.

A woman.

- That seems to be the general opinion.

♪ California ♪

♪ California ♪

- [Announcer] The Californians.

♪ California ♪

♪ I've come to live where life is best, in the golden West ♪

♪ I'm going to strike it rich in California ♪

♪ California ♪

- Oh it is preposterous and impossible,

no one in San Francisco will go to a woman doctor.

- I would, if she was a good doctor.

- Now look here, woman, will you stay out of this?

This is a man's business.

Do you know what you've done?

You've cheated us.

Every single, solitary line in your letters was a deceit!

(luggage clatters)

- I never said I was a man.

- You never said you weren't.

- Gentlemen, you advertised in the Baltimore papers

for a doctor of medicine.

I am a doctor of medicine.

- But a woman.

- Mr. McGivern, will you kindly leave my sex

out of this discussion?

I am Dr. Louise Francis Kendall,

graduate in science, Woman's College, Connecticut,

graduate in medicine, University of Edinburgh,

fellow in surgery, University of Vienna.

I am a physician, gentlemen, and that is what you wanted.

- Yes, but not a woman, not in this town.

- What Mr. McGivern is trying to say is we need a man,

a man who can fight.

- I've been fighting

ever since I made up my mind to enter medicine.

- But it's not that kind of a fight, ma'am.

We're up against desperate men, quacks,

they're piling up fortunes out here.

They'll stop at nothing

to drive a real doctor out of San Francisco.

- I'm not afraid of them.

- Dr. Kendall is here, you've already paid her passage West,

now why not give her a chance?

- After all, she is a doctor of medicine.

- Yes, I suppose she is, at that.

And she would be qualified as an expert witness in court,

wouldn't she?

- That's right.

Let's give her a chance, Jack.

- All right, we'll give you a chance, ma'am,

but here's what we want,

we want enough evidence to drum these quacks out of town.

We want you to examine some of their patients.

- To prove they're unfit to practice.

- Then stand up in court and testify against these quacks.

- What do you say?

- No.

- No? - No?

- Absolutely not.

- Now look here,

why the devil do you think that we

brought you out here in the first place

and at great expense too?

- To treat your sick,

and that's exactly what I intend to do.

I came here to practice medicine,

not to take sides in a political brawl.

- Name of all the saints, woman,

this is not a political brawl,

it's a question of simple humanity.

- I am going to treat your sick and that is all.

As for the passage money you advanced me,

I'll pay you back as soon as my practice is established.

Good day, gentlemen.

(dramatic, orchestral music)

I shall send for my luggage when I'm settled.

Good day, Mrs. McGivern.

- [Narrator] No one was trampled in a rush

to visit San Francisco's lady doctor.

After three weeks, she had yet to treat her first patient.

- What's the matter with you?

You're supposed to be a doctor.

You're supposed to care about things

like malpractice and quackery.

As a physician, you're supposed to fight them.

- I have only one fight, Mr. Patrick,

I'm tired of beating against the rocks of male prejudice.

- Now you listen to me--

- No, Mr. Patrick, you listen to me!

What do you think of women?

- Out here?

Well, women are, well there are all kinds of women,

if you're talking about descent women.

- Descent women.

Descent women,

a descent women, according to male likes,

is a fair and fragile blossom until she marries some man.

Then she becomes a household slave, bearer of children

and her husband's chattel,

chattel just as much as his house,

his horse or, or his favorite pipe.

I'm not considered a descent woman, Mr. Patrick,

because I dare to break the mold,

I dare to enter a man's profession.

I have been called insane, unwomanly,

indecent and immoral because I entered medicine.

There are only two of us, Mr. Patrick,

two woman physicians in this entire country.

Elizabeth Blackwell is the other one,

both of us fighting male prejudice.

I came here to find a practice

that was denied me in the East

because I thought out here, in the West,

where you needed physicians so desperately,

I wouldn't run into blind, male prejudice, but,

I was wrong.

- You still have the medical qualifications to help us.

- Mr. Patrick, I'm just tired of trying.

- Henry, I'm not going to try to conceal the truth,

you're in a pretty serious condition.

- How serious, Doctor?

- Now don't get all feathered up,

you're not gonna die, Henry.

Fortunately, you came to me in time.

I'm going to prescribe some pretty powerful

and pretty expensive medicine.

Take this and a teaspoon full of water three times a day.

Come back when you need a refill.

- Yes.

- That'll be $20.

- $20?

- Now Henry, you're not gonna tell me

that life and good health aren't worth a measly $20?

Thank you.

(gentle, orchestral music)

(knocking at the door)

- Just a minute.

Come in.

Oh, Mr. Patrick, is this a social or a professional call?

- I brought you a patient, Manuel Cardillo.

This is Dr. Kendall.

- [Dr. Kendall] Hello, Manuel.

- Mucho gusto, Doctor.

- [Dr. Kendall] Oh, won't you sit down, Manuel?

- Gracias.

- Manuel is one of Dr. Rodman's patients.

- Mm, I understand that Dr. Rodman

enjoys quite a reputation among his patients.

- Rodman is a quack.

- Would you open up your shirt, please, Manuel?

- Si.

- Breath through your mouth.

(soft breaths)

- When you've heard Manuel's story,

perhaps you'll realize how much we need your help.

- [Dr. Kendall] How has Dr. Rodman been treating you?

- He gave me this, very good, very bitter.

Very much money, $10 a bottle.

- Is this all he's prescribed for you?

- Si.

- Manuel, could you see me in the morning?

- Si.

Can I pay you now?

- No no, Manuel, wait until you see if I can help you.

- Gracias, Doctor, gracias.

Gracias, Senior.

- Goodbye, Manuel.

- [Manuel] Adios.

(door clatters)

- What's wrong with him, Doctor?

- Oh um, oh Mr. Patrick, I'm sorry but

I'm not at liberty to discuss my patient with a layman.

And would you please excuse me, I want to go see Dr. Rodman.

(dramatic, orchestral music)

- Next patient.

- Dr. Rodman, I'm Dr. Kendall.

- Dr. Kendall, how nice of you to call.

I had intended to call on you,

to welcome you to our medical fraternity,

in a way of speaking.

But demands of my practice, the appeals for help,

which, as a humane man, I cannot refuse.

Ah Doctor, if you knew the amount of suffering

that occupies this humble space,

believe me, Doctor, I rejoiced in your coming here.

I said to myself, "Here are young, fresh,

"strong shoulders to bear part of the burden."

Appropriate thought, wasn't it?

- I'm relieved by your attitude, Doctor.

- Oh?

- As a matter of fact,

one of your patients came to see me today, Manuel Cardillo.

- Oh yes, Manuel.

And uh, what did you make of him?

- I'm more interested

in what you thought of the case, Doctor.

- I?

- Yes.

How did you diagnose it?

Why did you prescribe for him the way you did?

- My dear young lady--

- Doctor, if you please, Doctor.

- [Larson] Doc, Doc Rodman!

- What is it, Larson?

Excuse me, Doctor.

What is it, Larson?

- The Washoe kid, he got shot.

- Oh, bring him in here.

- Come on, bring him in here.

- Put something under him before he ruins that couch.

Stand out of the way.

Stick a bullet in his mouth,

something for him to bite on when I start probing.

Larson,

chew up a big cut of tobacco.

(man grunts) Gimme that tobacco.

(labored, pained breathing)

Tear up a hunk of his shirt and wrap it up.

- Not that shirt!

- I don't think I'd use one of my own, do you?

- You haven't tied off one single ruptured blood vessel,

he's still bleeding!

- Oh, tobacco will take care of that.

I guess you haven't handled many gunshot wounds,

young woman, I'm an old hand at it.

- How many of your victims survive?

- I don't like your language.

- And I don't like anything about you or your practice.

I think you're an unscrupulous charlatan

and I intend to expose you if it's the last thing I do.

Good day, Mr. Rodman.

- Trouble Doc, anything that needs taking care of?

- Not at all.

Who would listen to a silly woman?

- That gentleman, Mr. Cardillo,

that you brought to my office,

as far as I can determine, he is suffering from consumption.

- What about the medicine Rodman was selling him?

- A cheap patent nostrum, not worth 50 cents a bottle,

absolutely useless in cases like this.

- Well tell me, eh, can you prove that he has consumption?

- There are simple tests, but I am certain of my diagnosis.

- Then you will testify to Rodman's incompetence?

- In any court or tribunal in the land, yes.

- Thank you, Doctor.

All right Dion,

now is the time to spread it all over the newspaper.

- I'll break the news tonight.

- Mr. Patrick.

Would you have Mr. Cardillo in my office

first thing in the morning?

- I sure will.

(dramatic, orchestral music)

(door clatters)

- You sent for me, Doc?

- Yes Larson, I got a job for you.

(gun blasts)

(dramatic, orchestral music)

- Who is it, Dion?

- It's Manuel Cardillo, he's dead.

(fist knocking)

- [Dr. Kendall] Who is it?

- It's me, Dion Patrick.

- [Dr. Kendall] I can't see you now.

- You've got to, it's important.

I said I've got to see you.

(door clatters)

- What is it?

- It's about Manuel Cardillo.

- That is not important now.

- What do you mean it's not important?

Manuel's been murdered.

We've lost our evidence against Rodman.

- Please, you must go away.

- Don't you realize Rodman and his crew are after you?

They've already committed one murder, you may be the next.

- I'll be all right, Mr. Patrick, please, you must go away.

- What's the matter in there, is something wrong?

- Please, go away!

(dramatic, orchestral music)

Dion!

He arrived late this afternoon.

He's off a China clipper that just made port.

- What's the matter with him?

- He's got the Small Pox.

- Small Pox?

- We're facing an epidemic. (dramatic music)

Incubation period is from eight to 14 days,

each new case becomes a carrier of the disease,

it'll spread like wildfire.

- And then what do we do, Doctor?

- Quarantine your sick,

take care of them the best you can and take your losses.

- Is that all we can do?

- There's no patent nostrum

against this disease, Mr. Patrick.

If you only had a descent health service,

if you would inspect and quarantine the arriving ships,

there's no point discussing what might have been.

- Doctor, what about vaccination?

- You need cowpox serum for that

and there's none to be had in San Francisco, I checked.

The nearest source of supply is Philadelphia.

By the time you got it here,

the disease would have taken its toll.

Well gentlemen, you have from eight to 14 days

to prepare for an epidemic.

I'll do all I can, Mrs. McGivern.

Goodnight.

- Goodnight, Doctor.

- [Narrator] Hour after hour,

Doctor Kendall held her dedicated watch

beside the miserable wretch

who had brought the curse upon us.

Between his demands for care,

she waged a hopeless search for hope.

And on the streets, men, women and children

went about their business,

unaware of the killer waiting to strike.

(cheerful piano music)

- Ain't heard so much from the lady croaker lately.

- I don't think she dare show her face,

not after the way her charges against me blew up.

- They sure did, didn't they, Doc?

- I'm not through with her or the California Star.

I intend to file suits against both,

for defamation of character and criminal liable.

Imagine, calling a man of my stature a quack?

(body thumps) (woman screams)

- What is it, what's wrong?

- Here, let me through, let me through, I'm a doctor.

(people chattering)

(dramatic, orchestral music)

- It's the pox!

(people panicking)

- [Narrator] At nights, the pitch pot smoked

in hope it would dispel the foul,

disease carrying miasmas in the night air.

Relief workers, masked and hooded against contagion,

went about their appointed tasks of maintaining quarantine

and were, themselves, stricken, even as they labored.

- Take this as directed and I guarantee

you won't get the Small Pox.

I take it myself.

Look at me.

- [Woman] How much is it?

- $20 a bottle.

- [Woman] I'll take three.

- It's an old system of inoculation,

used before a Doctor Jenner

discovered vaccination with cowpox.

- Exactly how does it work, Doc?

- You take the dry scrapings

from the soar of a convalescent case

and introduce them into the bloodstream.

- But you can't be serious,

to put that stuff into a healthy body?

Oh no, this is complete madness.

- Does it work?

- Sometimes, most times.

Occasionally there's a mild onset of the disease,

but in either case, if it works, it provides immunity.

- Well how many times doesn't it work?

- Oh, one out of 20.

- [McGivern] Yes, and then?

- [Dr. Kendall] I didn't say it wasn't dangerous,

Mr. McGivern,

I said it gives us a better chance than we have now.

- Well where do you get the scrapings?

- From the original carrier, the sailor,

he's made a fair recovery.

The soars are drying up.

- Well Jack?

- Well I, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to say no.

- And I say yes.

We've got to take every chance.

Dr. Kendall, will you inoculate me?

- No Martha, no!

- I'm ready, Doctor.

- I've always thought

that you were a better man than me, Martha.

Now I know it.

Doctor, will you inoculate me along with my wife?

(inspirational, orchestral music)

(people chattering)

- Then they take this stuff,

they scratch your arm, rub it in and you don't get the pox.

- Poppycock.

- You don't believe it?

- Certainly not,

it's against every principle of medical practice,

but when I think of these poor, misguided people

who will permit this woman to inject her poison

into their good bodies,

Larson, we've got to do something about it.

As a practitioner of the healing arts,

I owe it to my fellow men to save them from such folly.

We've got to get rid of it and we will.

(ominous, orchestral music)

(door clicks)

- They just told me.

How is he?

- Louise is with him.

I don't know how serious it is.

- One out of 20 and it had to be Jack.

Well?

- I don't know.

- Well can I see him?

- I'm sorry.

I never should have taken the chance.

- Don't talk that way.

You have to take chances.

- Not with the lives of my friends.

Oh Martha,

I'm so tired.

If there were only other doctors in this town.

- There were a few, they couldn't make a living.

Rodman and his fellow quacks

made life impossible for them here, drove them away.

You're the only doctor we have.

- But I'm a woman.

- You're a doctor first.

- Nevertheless, I'm gonna stop the inoculations.

- You can't.

Inoculation has already worked, hasn't it?

How many deaths would we have had without it?

- You can say that after what I did to Jack?

- My husband's inoculation was a failure,

but that's my grief and none of yours.

You haven't time for a woman's weakness.

You forfeited that right when you took up medicine.

You're a doctor and we need you.

You must inoculate.

- Help us, Doctor, please help us.

- I'll be with you in a moment.

(door clatters)

Who did this?

- [Patrick] Rodman.

- It's so senseless.

- You think so?

The people are starting to accept your ideas.

They know that inoculation works to protect them.

How's all this going to affect your plans for inoculation?

- It's gonna end them unless

I can find another convalescent case and get the scrapings.

Dion, do you mean to tell me that he wrecked my office,

kidnapped the patient, just to discredit me?

What kind of an animal is this man?

- We told you the kind of wolves

we were fighting when you came here.

- [Dr. Kendall] What are you doing?

- Best weapon against wolves is poison.

(foreboding, orchestral music)

- What do you want?

(door clatters)

- I want a few words about health.

- Oh?

- Your health.

- It's excellent, thank you.

- What did you do with Dr. Kendall's patient?

- I don't know what you're talking about.

- That's one chance gone, here's your second,

why did you murder Manuel Cardillo?

- That's absurd.

- That's two chances gone, here's your third one,

will you get out of town and stay out?

- I will do nothing of the kind.

(dramatic, orchestral music)

What's this, what are you doing? (muttering)

- You abducted the Small Pox patient, that's his bedding.

- Bedding?

- The sheets and pillow cases he slept on

all during his sickness.

It's no use,

there are men outside to stop you.

You're quarantined.

You're already infected, Rodman, infected with Small Pox.

You're gonna stay right in this room with that bedding.

- You're bluffing.

You'd never carry that bedding,

you'd get Small Pox yourself!

- You've forgotten just one thing, I'm immune.

I was one of the first to be inoculated.

- You can't do this, it's murder!

- It's retribution, Rodman.

- Inoculation, I must get inoculated.

- Did you have Manuel killed?

- Yes, I admit it.

- And wrecking Dr. Kendall's office?

- Yes.

(Rodman muttering) - Not until

you've written a full confession.

(chair squeaking) (dramatic music)

All right, Mr. Rodman, write fast.

(people chattering)

- Doctor.

I think you'd better go in to Jack.

- How is he?

- I don't know, (crying) he looked,

well all of a sudden, he looked different. (sobbing)

- Martha,

he's gonna be all right, the fever's broken

and there won't even be a mark on that handsome face of his.

Why don't you go in now,

I know he'd be happy to see you when he wakes up.

Must be nice to feel that way about a man.

- The good side of it is that the city council

is setting up a regular health and quarantine office.

- Thanks to Dr. Kendall.

- What are we going to do about Rodman, Dion?

- Well he was uh,

he was given the inoculation like we promised,

but he was the one in 20 where it didn't work.

- Oh you mean he's dead?

- No, he's convalescing in jail.

He'll have plenty of time to get well.

When he gets well, he'll be tried for the murder of Manuel.

(dramatic, orchestral music)

♪ California ♪

♪ Oh I've traveled here, I've traveled there ♪

♪ I guess I've been most everywhere ♪

♪ But I like where I am today ♪

♪ And here is where I'll stay ♪

♪ Now one thing I just can't endure ♪

♪ Is being broke and being poor ♪

♪ So I come West to take the cure ♪

♪ And here is where I'll stay ♪

♪ I've come to California ♪

♪ California ♪

♪ There's gold in them there hills in California ♪

♪ I've come to live where life is best ♪

♪ In the golden West ♪

♪ I'm gonna strike it rich in California ♪

♪ California, California ♪

♪ There's gold in them there hills in California ♪

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