A MAN TO REMEMBER, if you can find it, is a real treat from 1938, a modest B-picture shot in fifteen days for $118,000 by Garson Kanin, 25 years old, in his first go at directing. The script, an early effort from Dalton Trumbo, was based on a short story titled “Failure” written six years before by Katherine Haviland-Taylor. It was first filmed in 1933 as One Man’s Journey, with Lionel Barrymore and Joel McCrea. Well-reviewed at the time, A Man To Remember grossed $416,000 back in 1938, equivalent to $8,436,000 in 2025. Hassles over rights and ensuing negligence saw that original copies of the film’s negative were lost. In 2007 Turner Classic Movies restored the one surviving print, which has Dutch subtitles, rescuing the picture from oblivion after not being seen for seven decades. It’s a gem.

While the town of Westport holds a funeral procession for an admired, long-serving physician, his lawyer sorts thru the deceased man’s receipts in order to settle credits with a trio of ‘respected’ citizens—the town’s banker, the newspaper editor and the owner of the biggest store—hawks unmoved by grief.

Flashbacks reveal the story of ‘Dr. John Abbott’ (Edward Ellis, 67), who came to the town with his young son and a sense of moral obligation to his profession and basic civic duty. Over the decades, Abbott aids those who can’t afford to pay much—sometimes anything—and goads the grudging community leaders into social improvements. One patient leaves his deceased wife’s newborn with Abbott, who raises her along with his own child. Grown, ‘Dick Abbott’ (Lee Bowman, 23) goes to medical school (thanks to dad) and adopted ‘Jean’ (Anne Shirley, 20) works with John, including in his battle to save Westport from an epidemic of  infantile paralysis.

Simple, touching, humanistic look at selflessness pitted against selfishness packs a lot into a compact 80 minutes, and is blessed by assured direction, keen writing and fine work from the cast, with a wonderful lead performance from Ellis.

With Granville Bates (‘George Sykes’, banker), William Henry (‘Howard Sykes’, the banker’s careless ne’re do well son), Harlan Briggs (‘Homer Ramsey’, businessman), Charles Halton (the lawyer), Frank M. Thomas (‘Jode Harkness’, news editor), Dickie Jones (Dick Abbott as a child), John Wray, Richard Emery, Dick Elliott, Byron Foulger and Grady Sutton.