Sister Kenny
| Sister Kenny | |
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Movie Poster
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| Directed by |
Dudley Nichols Jack Gage (dialogue director) |
| Produced by | Dudley Nichols |
| Written by | Dudley Nichols (screenplay) Alexander Knox (screenplay) Mary McCarthy |
| Starring |
Rosalind Russell Alexander Knox Dean Jagger |
| Music by | Alexander Tansman |
| Cinematography | George Barnes |
| Edited by | Roland Gross |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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116 min |
| Language | English |
Sister Kenny (1946) is a biographical film about Sister Elizabeth Kenny, an Australian bush nurse, who fought to help people who suffered from polio, despite opposition from the medical establishment. The film stars Rosalind Russell, Alexander Knox, and Philip Merivale.
The movie was adapted by Alexander Knox, Mary McCarthy Milton Gunzburg (uncredited) and Dudley Nichols from the book And They Shall Walk, by Elizabeth Kenny and Martha Ostenso, and directed by Dudley Nichols.
The "Sister" in the title does not refer to being a nun, rather, a rank she had held as a nurse in the Australian Army and also a term for a senior RN (which Kenny was not).
In 1911, Elizabeth Kenny (Rosalind Russell) returns from nurse school in Brisbane, Australia to her home in the bush of Queensland with the head doctor at the nearest hospital, Dr. McDonnell (Alexander Knox). She informs him that she will be a bush nurse near her home instead of taking up residency at the hospital 50 miles away; her own personal experiences growing up in the bush made her want to help those not able to get to a hospital. Dr. McDonnell is incredulous, and says she will not last six months in the bush.
Three years later, Sister Kenny visits a ranch to treat a young girl, Dorrie (Doreen McCann), who is bedridden. She sends a telegram to McDonnell, who says that the infantile paralysis has no known treatment, but "to do the best you can with the symptoms presenting themselves." Sister Kenny notices that if the muscles were truly paralyzed, they could not tense up as they were doing. She wraps Dorrie in hot cloth, and the girl eventually fully recovers, as do five other cases of infantile paralysis that Sister Kenny finds and treats.
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