How Long Is “Arrowsmith”?

Sinclair Lewis' novel Arrowsmith is given so stylish a screen treatment by producer Sam Goldwyn that at times it looks more like an art-deco exhibit than a film. Ronald Colman stars as Martin Arrowsmith, an idealist doctor who forsakes a cushy, big-city practice to seek out a cure for bubonic plague. Arrowsmith's wife Helen Hayes at first balks at the prospect of accompanying her husband to the West Indies, but she finally honors her "wifely duties"--only to be rewarded by Arrowsmith's casual affair with sexy Myrna Loy. When Hayes dies from smoking a plague-infected cigarette, the conscience-stricken Arrowsmith reawakens to his duty to humanity. It won't be readily obvious, given the streamlined look of the film, but Arrowsmith was directed by none other than John Ford, here contributing to the overall "class" of the production by pretentiously billing himself as John A. Ford.