Late on Christmas Day, a man coaxes an antiques shopkeeper to let him in under the pretense of needing a gift for his fiancée, but it is soon clear he wants something else. To his surprise, what he gets is a battle with his own conscience.
Year: Release Date: Rating: Video Type:
1956
04/11/1956
Approved
TV Series Episode 30 minutes
B
This MGM short, part of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade series, tells the story of Dr. Ephraim McDowell. In Danville, Kentucky in 1809 McDowell wanted to perform surgery on a woman, Jane Crawford, with a large tumor. He was threatened with being thrown out of the medical profession if he operated, something that did not exist at the time. The townspeople felt opening up a living human being was against the will of God and were quite prepared to stop him by force if need be. The operation however was a success and surgery became acceptable. // The famous surgery took place on December 25, 1809 without benefit of antisepsis or anesthesia - both unknown to medicine at the time. The ovarian tumor weighed 22.5 pounds (10.2 kg) and the whole procedure took 25 minutes. Mrs. Crawford, the patient, would live another 32 years.
After leaving a wealthy Belgian family to become a nun, Sister Luke struggles with her devotion to her vows during crisis, disappointment, and World War II.
At a U.S. Army base in 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his commanding officer's wife and top aide begin a tentative affair.
