The Fight for Life

The Fight for Life — Plot

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 film's 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 disease-ridden 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.

• Release date
• March 7, 1940
• Runtime
• 69 min
• Genres
• Drama
• Director
• Pare Lorentz

The Fight for Life — Cast

Myron McCormick Dr. O’Donnell

S

Storrs Haynes Hanson Will Geer Ballou Dudley Digges Chefarzt Dorothy Adams The Young Woman

D

Dorothy Urban The Grandmother

E

Effie Anderson The Receptionist Woody Guthrie Citizen (uncredited)