The Strange Case of Doctor Rx

The Strange Case of Doctor Rx is a 1942 black and white B movie murder mystery horror film by Universal Studios starring Patric Knowles, Lionel Atwill, Anne Gwynne, Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Samuel S. Hinds. It was directed by William Nigh.[1] Although Clarence Upson Young is credited with the screenplay, the actors mostly ad-libbed their lines. The plot involves the search for a serial killer who is targeting men who were acquitted of murder.[2] The film received poor reviews upon release.[3]

The Strange Case of Doctor Rx
Directed byWilliam Nigh
Produced byJack Bernhard
Written byClarence Upson Young
StarringPatric Knowles
Lionel Atwill
Anne Gwynne
Ray "Crash" Corrigan
Samuel S. Hinds
CinematographyElwood Bredell
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • April 17, 1942 (1942-04-17) (U.S.)
Running time
66 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot summary

Private investigator Jerry Church (Knowles) has just married his longtime fiance, Kit (Gwynne). Defense attorney Dudley Crispin (Hinds) and Church's former police partner Capt. Hurd (Edmund McDonald), talk Church into taking one last case: investigating a string of murders committed by someone calling themself Dr. Rx where the victims have been five clients that Crispin had successfully defended in court.

After a sixth murder and the discovery that another detective has gone insane investigating the murders, Church agrees to drop the case at Kit's insistence. However, he is kidnapped and blackmailed into continuing the investigation by a criminal who the police suspect is the killer but who wants his name cleared by Church finding the real Dr. Rx.

Church is then abducted by Dr. Rx who explains that he is going to transplant Church's brain into a gorilla (Corrigan) to make the gorilla smart, leaving Church in the cage with the angry gorilla. Church is found the next morning and taken, unconscious, to the hospital where everyone gathers around, including Dr. Fish (Atwill) who has been seen following Church. When the District Attorney (William Gould) asks to use Crispin's pen, Crispin takes the pen, which is actually a poison dart gun, and shoots himself in the chest and dies. Church reveals that he has just been faking unconsciousness, and that he had been working with Dr. Fish to capture Crispin who had wanted to prove himself brilliant by defending criminals in court, but then reestablishing justice by killing the guilty men after their trials.[3]

Production and distribution

Shooting began on October 6, 1941.[3] The script had not been completed and so many of the scenes were ad-libbed.[4] Anne Gwynne reported that making the film was "fun, fun, fun" but that the ad-libbing had left "some plot loopholes in the finished product."[5]

In one of the scenes, the doctor is going to attempt to transplant the police inspector's brain into a gorilla, played by Corrigan.[6] The Strange Case of Doctor Rx was one of the many films in which Corrigan played a gorilla, wearing a customized gorilla suit that he owned.[7] Corrigan, in his gorilla suit, and Gwynne in her nightgown, posed together for promotional stills, although they never appear together in the film.[4]

The Strange Case of Doctor Rx was one of the 52 Universal films that Screen Gems released in 1956 for television distribution under the Shock! label.[8][9] It also aired as part of WOR-TV's Science Fiction Theater on January 1, 1972.[10]

Reception

Variety called it "incredulous and wearisome tale" and wondered how it had gotten approval from Universal.[11] The New York Times review said the film was a "collection of babble clues, butlers at windows and gloomy manses, mysterious messages, stupid policemen, leers by Lionel Atwill and matrimonial badinage ... most of which is beside the point." [3] The Leonard Maltin Classic Movie Guide calls the film a "fast-paced whodunit" but "not particularly puzzling."[12] Tom Weaver, Micheal and John Brunas appreciated the on-screen chemistry between Gwynne and Knowles, but thought that Atwill, "in the reddest of red herring roles", was wasted.[3]

The film contains racial stereotyping including the type that Robin Means Coleman calls the "coon who turned coward" when Horatio Washington, a black chauffeur played by Mantan Moreland, gets scared and his hair turns white with fright.[13] Weaver, Brunas and Brunas believe that Moreland was able to rise above the racism and provide some genuinely funny lines in his role, but all of the bumbling cop routine of Shemp Howard fell flat.[3]

gollark: Hmm, the prizes in market thing is ***HOT*** now.
gollark: Yes, this place is probably nicer, though whether that's due to people just generally agreeing more, actual niceness, or there not being a suggestions channel we shall never know.
gollark: > `It is kind of crazy, though, that offspring from a thing given out at random fetch those high prices. This is what I mean by balance problems. `> `You can actually get them for 15 common hatchlings bred from your scroll. I am living proof. `LOGIC!
gollark: Er, no, random chance happens sometimes.
gollark: I mean, there are 32 of them at most if you ignore capitalization.

References
  1. Senn, Bryan (1996). Golden Horrors: An Illustrated Critical Filmography of Terror Cinema, 1931–1939. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0175-8.
  2. Paietta, Ann Catherine; Kauppila, Jean L. (1999). Health Professionals on Screen. Scarecrow Press. pp. 278–. ISBN 978-0-8108-3636-5.
  3. Weaver, Tom; Brunas, Michael; Brunas, John (1990). Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931–1946 (2nd ed.). McFarland. pp. 290–. ISBN 978-0-7864-9150-6.
  4. Mank, Gregory William (2005). Women in Horror Films, 1940s. McFarland. pp. 392–. ISBN 978-1-4766-0955-3.
  5. Weaver, Tom (2004). It Came from Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Tradition. McFarland. pp. 152–. ISBN 978-0-7864-8216-0.
  6. Gott, Ted; Weir, Kathryn (2013). Gorilla. Reaktion Books. pp. 131–. ISBN 978-1-78023-067-2.
  7. M.D., Sharon Packer (2014). Neuroscience in Science Fiction Films. McFarland. pp. 285–. ISBN 978-0-7864-7234-5.
  8. Voger, Mark (2015). Monster Mash: The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze In America, 1957–1972. TwoMorrows Publishing. pp. 15–. ISBN 978-1-60549-064-9.
  9. Glut, Donald F. (2012). Shock Theatre Chicago Style: WBKB-TV's Late Night Horror Showcase, 1957-1959. McFarland. pp. 182–. ISBN 978-0-7864-8971-8.
  10. Arena, James (2011). Fright Night on Channel 9: Saturday Night Horror Films on New York's WOR-TV, 1973–1987. McFarland. pp. 65–. ISBN 978-0-7864-8891-9.
  11. Nowell, Richard (2014). Merchants of Menace: The Business of Horror Cinema. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 169–. ISBN 978-1-62356-420-9.
  12. Maltin, Leonard (2015). Turner Classic Movies Presents Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide: From the Silent Era Through 1965: Third Edition. Penguin Publishing Group. pp. 509–. ISBN 978-0-698-19729-9.
  13. Coleman, Robin R Means (2013). Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present. Routledge. pp. 270–. ISBN 978-1-136-94294-5.


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