The Fight for Life (1940)

The Fight for Life was documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz first dramatic film utilizing the talents of several top New York stage actors A tribute to the Chicago Maternity Center and its efforts to provide the best possible care for destitute mothers the film is based on the book of the same name by Paul de Kruif Myron McCormick plays the largest role as a dedicated intern while others in the cast include such theatrical heavywrights as Will Geer Dudley Digges and Dorothy Adams The films many vignettes range from the tragic a mother dying in childbirth in the opening scene to the exultant another mother rescued from the brink of death in a diseaseridden tenement Filmed in Chicago Detroit and Cleveland Fight for Life is a worthwhile effort though Lorentz seems more comfortable with the actuality scenes than with the dramatized passages