I watched this film on TCM a few months ago. What I find charming is that they made a biography of the man who developed the first effective treatment for syphilis without mentioning the word “syphilis” once.
Nowadays, they would feel compelled to show, in graphic detail, how the afflicted acquired the disease, as well as lurid anatomical detail of the consequences.
Oh, for a kinder, gentler time!
As side notes: Dr. Paul Ehrlich should not be confused with the fraud, Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich, author of “The Population Bomb”, the great scientific scandal prior to the man made global warming scandal. Nor should he be confused with Dr. S. Paul Ehrlich, Jr., who was the Surgeon General of the United States.
Dr. Paul Ehrlich is justifiably listed among the great scientists of history, not just for his work in curing the horrific disease syphilis, but also because of his insistence in rigorously following the precise practices of the scientific method.
Here was a man who followed all the rules, a role model for future generations of scientists on the right way of doing science.
These old biopix (Ehrlich, Pasteur, Edison, Curie, ...) inspired me to study science.
Today, Hollywood thinks Al Gore is a scientist. How sad!