THE MILLERSON CASE
US, 1947, 72 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Baxter, Nancy Saunders, Clem Bevans, Griff Barnett, Paul Guilfoyle, Addison Richards.
Directed by George Archainbaud.
Despite the title, and this is one of the series of the Crime Dr mysteries, a popular series during the 1940s, B-budget from Columbia Studios.
This film is quite different, the action not taking place in the city or in the doctor’s office – except at the beginning when he decides to go on vacation. He drives to the mountains for hunting, finding a rather hillbilly community, the setting in West Virginia.
He doesn’t get time to do the hunting because there is a typhus outbreak in which he assists. There is also a murder and he joins with the local doctors and the police to solve it. The plot uncovers some smouldering passions underneath the hillbilly surface, and some deaths in vengeance, as well as to prevent the discovery of the murderer.
Paul Guilfoyle frequently plays criminals and looks rather sinister in this one – but turns out to be one of the good guys!
Quite a lot of the dialogue concerns holding onto traditions of medicine and law enforcement out in the mountains and the need for entering into 20th century methods.
1. Part of the series of the Crime Doctor murder mysteries and investigations? Dr Ordway, his New York practice, going on vacation, to West Virginia, typhus and murder?
2. The New York settings and office, the West Virginia town, shops, streets, homes, the local fair? The musical score?
3. Audience familiarity with Dr Ordway? Age, experience, character? Arriving in Brooke Falls, meeting Jud, his guide, the plan to hunt and fish?
4. The house, Mrs Millerson, the boy shot, the doctor, the old-fashioned medicines, the long traditions? His clash with the doctors at the local clinic?
5. The old-fashioned ideas of the people in West Virginia, rather unflattering? The sheriff, the judge, shopkeepers, playing cards? The barber and his collapse? At home, his upset wife, flirtatious sister-in-law? His death? The later revelation about his womanising, Jud’s wife, the poisoner’s wife, the funeral?
6. The local doctors, welcoming Dr Ordway, the local law enforcement? The collaboration in investigation? The range of interviews, pieces of information, the picture of the barber, of the women (and their anger with each other and the public fight in the street)? The doctor, his hostility? The illiterate worker and his angers?
7. The local fair, the enthusiasm, the games and competitions? Dr Ordway setting up the shooting competition? The candidates and the revelation about the shooting?
8. The note, the doctor going to the pool, his being shot?
9. Further investigations, the suspicions on Jud, the hypnosis? The doctor going to see the little girl, buying the doll, her writing the note for her father? His anger and vengeance? And shooting the doctor? Arrest, imprisonment, his behaviour and mental condition? The doctor testing in with the paper on fire and his taking the bait?
10. Dr Ordway as a catalyst for change, always agreeable rather than threatening? Fishing next year?
