Product Details

• Actors: Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, Ralph Richardson, Rex Harrison, Emlyn Williams
• Directors: King Vidor
• Writers: Emlyn Williams, A.J. Cronin, Elizabeth Hill, Frank Wead, Ian Dalrymple
• Producers: Hayes Goetz, Victor Saville
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Studio: Warner Studios
• VHS Release Date: January 28, 1988
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301967771
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,496 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Money Isn't Everything, June 16, 2001

By 

James L. - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Citadel [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Robert Donat, an excellent actor who made too few films, stars as a young English doctor who enters the profession with many ideals and dreams, but loses them along the path of his life. Rosalind Russell stars as the schoolteacher he marries that loves his ideals, while Ralph Richardson and Rex Harrison are doctors he befriends at different points in his life. Richardson believes in helping the regular man and that money is not important, while Harrison treats wealthy hypochondriacs in between fancy lunches and golf games. The message of the film is pretty obvious, and there are some slow parts. But the acting is fine, with special praise to Richardson who has a number of showy moments. It's one of those stories that reminds us that money isn't everything.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine medical melodrama, very heartfelt., February 1, 2000

By 

bearndahl (SF, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Citadel [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a wonderful screen adaptation of the classic novel that deals with a Doctor in Great Britain as he struggles with the entrenched medical establishment. The film is dated, of course, and may be a bit slow for modern tastes. The lead actors are mostly fine in their roles, although Robert Donat as Dr. Manson seems to be somewhat conflicted in his motivations. Rosalind Russell gives an excellent performance as Dr. Manson's highly-principled wife. Ralph Richardson does a great supporting turn as a flawed physician desperately trying to reclaim his humanity. His impassioned plea to Dr. Manson to join him in a preventative care group is one of the highlights of the film. A very young Rex Harrison does a nice job as a society doctor. Overall, this is a highly watchable film with a delighful cast and a relevant storeyline. I would highly recommend this film, especially to anyone in the medical profession.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scathing Indictment of British Medicine, July 16, 2009

By 

David Baldwin (Philadelphia,PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Citadel (DVD)

The themes in "The Citadel" remain timeless because so many atrocities in medicine that existed in the Thirties ring true today. Andrew Manson (Robert Donat) is an idealistic doctor whose first assignment is in a Welsh mining town where typhoid runs rampant primarily due to the indifference of the local government to living conditions. Subsequently, he takes a position in another mining town where his practice is literally destroyed by prejudice and superstition. Disillusioned, he takes up practice in London where his only concern is overcharging his patients for minor procedures like ear piercings. Eventually he hooks up with a cadre of physicians whose only pleasure is fleecing the upper crust for real or imagined ailments. Manson could have been completely corrupted by the darker impulses of his profession if not for a tragedy that hits a little too close to home. Donat is superb in assaying the odyssey that Manson takes from wide-eyed idealist to cynical greedhound back to a man who clings to the principles of his profession. Ralph Richardson is equally good as the voice of reason and integrity for the medical profession. Rex Harrison is deliciously smarmy as a doctor more concerned with bilking his patients and hitting the links than actually treating the sick. Rosalind Russell as Manson's wife embodies the confusion of a woman who married a man out of admiration only to be seduced by the material gains his trade brings. The Thirties produced many great films and "The Citadel" sits proudly as one of them.