THE STRANGE CASE OF DOCTOR Rx
US, 1942, 66 minutes, Black and white.
Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, Anne Gwynne, Samuel S. Hinds, Mona Barrie, Shemp Howard, Paul Cavanagh, Mantan Moreland.
Directed by William Nigh.
There were many small-budget dramas of strange cases of strange doctors. This is another one of those – but not high on the list as a must see.
The film was directed by William Nigh who began directing in 1914, finishing in 1948, a long list of small dramas, sometimes with touches of horror. The film has a reasonably strong cast, Patric Knowles being a suave leading man, Lionel Atwill often a mysterious character, Anne Gwynne as a feisty heroine, Samuel S. Hinds is a substantial character, along with Paul Cavanagh. Mantan Moreland was an African- American comedian and has a significant comic role here – though, perhaps a little bit cringeworthy in hindsight. One of the biggest surprises is the familiarity of one of the assistants to the police investigators – none other than Shemp Howard, to become one of the Three Stooges.
There is a serial killer on the loose who signed himself Dr Rx. The victims have been in the courts and have been freed. Samuel S. Hinds is the lawyer concerned with all these clients.
When journalist, Jerry Church, Patric Knowles, returns from Latin America with no intention of doing further investigations, he is caught up because of friendships. Also in the story is the novelist of crime stories played by Anne Gwynne who has been engaged to Jerry Church – and eventually catches up with him, surprisingly wanting him to stay home and not do the investigations.
This provides a bit of comic romance as background to the murders. Lionel Atwill gets top billing as a doctor who has a gorilla in his laboratory and is concerned about transferring the animal brain to a human brain – with Jerry Church being a likely candidate. In a sense, this is a red herring, because the murderer turns out to be the lawyer who is wreaking his own justice on his criminal clients.
An uneasy mix of crime, comedy, and a touch of horror fiction with the gorilla in the laboratory.
