AllMovie

A Doctor's Diary is told through the eyes of Dr. Dan Norris (John Trent), resident physician in a private hospital. In his search for a cure for spinal meningitis, Norris recklessly runs roughshod over the feelings of his colleagues. The doctor's older, wiser supervisor, Dr. Clem Driscoll (George Bancroft), tries to curb Norris' impatience, pointing out that nothing takes place overnight. Angrily, Norris accuses Driscoll of malpractice and is forced to resign from the clinic -- just when a meningitis epidemic breaks out. Hoping to get back into the hospital lab to complete his experiments, Norris makes his peace with Driscoll -- who, as it turns out, was really on Norris' side all along. For reasons unknown, the filmmakers decided to complicate this perfectly acceptable plotline with a secondary story involving the mentally unstable mother of an ailing violin prodigy.