The Little Doctor of the Foothills

The Little Doctor of the Foothills (1910)

21 May 1910 • Western, Short
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It has never occurred to the sleepy village of Sturgis, in Arizona, that a doctor, an M.D., was really necessary to the welfare of the community and there was not much enthusiasm among the loafers at the Sturgis Hotel, when the proprietor read aloud the following note, addressed in him: "Dear Sir, I am going to practice medicine in your county. Please reserve a room for me, I will arrive in a few days. Cecil Burton, M.D." Sturgis suffers an awakening, however, when the stagecoach drives up, a few days later, and deposits two persons, one a lanky young chap, and a small, good looking woman. There is not much enthusiasm when the supposed doctor is ushered into the hotel office, followed by the young woman. However, when they discover that the lanky person is a book agent and that it is the winsome young woman who has come to cure for them "all the ills that flesh is heir to" the situation looks decidedly up. Cecil Burton, M.D., is introduced all around and offered the best room in the house. When she withdraws there is not a cowboy in the crowd who is not suffering with some sort of an ailment of the heart, but, alas, it is not the sort of a malady to be cured by drugs. In Sturgis, history will tell us, Pete the Coyote has had the reputation of starting things or taking the initiative. His heart, too, has been captured by the pretty little doctor and, lacking that certain finesse in his speech which has the reputation of charming ladies he decides to work on her sympathies. Miss Burton is hardly established in her room when Pete is taken violently ill with a fit and the doctor is summoned. A number of the boys witness the performance and are inspired to try the same trick themselves. Alkali Ike goes to his boarding house, where he is suddenly attacked by some excruciatingly painful gastric malady. The landlady sends Dutch Mike for the doctor, who readily cures Aklali. Dutch Mike, who has witnessed the smiles of pleasure of Alkali's face when the doctor rubbed his head, resolves also to be sick and when Miss Burton comes upon him near the stable he goes into awful convulsions. The little maid by this time sees the joke and dashes a bucket of water on her latest patient. He is cured instantly. Broncho Pete, who had brought the water but who had left the scene before Mike was souses, resolves that he, too, should be under the lady's care. As she is on her way home she meets Pete who is thrown from his horse and pretends he has broken his leg. This is too much for the little doctor, who solicitously bends over him and then gravely brings from her grip a butcher knife. The Broncho, when he sees the knife, jumps to his feet and beats it. The little doctor laughs, mounts her horse and rides back to the hotel, resolved not to answer any more calls no matter how "urgent" they may be. You may remember the fable about the shepherd boy who cried "wolf." Ralph Bronson, a ranchman, while cleaning his revolver, accidentally shoots one of his cowpunchers. Turning the wounded man over to the others, he mounts his horse and rides for the doctor. However, she refuses to come, believing it to be another joke and Bronson rides back and with the aid of the other cowboys brings the wounded man to town. The little doctor is almost overcome when she finds that she had really been needed and that the poor cowpuncher was near to death from loss of blood and all because she refused to go to his aid. However, she saves him and when the film closes we receive the suggestion that a love affair is well grounded between "the little doctor" and her patient.

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, Clara Williams, John B. O'Brien
Starring

Language: None, English
Awards:
Country: United States
Metacritic Score:
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Box Office Total:

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