The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942)

In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made a ton of amateur detective films...ones in which supposedly ordinary folk solve crimes because they are brilliant and the cops total idiots. Because of this, "The Strange Case of Doctor Rx" is very familiar. Despite a few unusual twists here and there, the story is all too familiar...especially with the inclusion of Mantan Moreland was his usual scared black man routine.There is a psychopath murdering people they think are worthy of death! And, these deaths are obviously related because with each victim is a letter from someone calling themselves 'Dr. Rx'. Jerry (Patric Knowles) is about to get married and keep his promise to his new bride--to give up crime-solving. But some of the baddies have a different idea.Overall this is just a fair film to watch. This is because it ended poorly with a 'scene missing here' portion that disappoints. Additionally, the usual cliches abound.

Outside of Lugosi, Karloff, Rathbone and Deanna Durbin...This B Universal thriller creates a mysterious new monster, an unseen allegedly doctor who decides to play judge and jury when the jury commits travesties of justice. Patric Knowles is a famous detective brought into the case when nobody else can find any clues as to who the guilty party is. "The most notorious case since Jack the Ripper", Sherlock Holmes would say, and while there's no Holmes and Watson, there is a brief appearance by Scottish Mary Gordon, not Mrs. Hudson here from the "Sherlock Holmes" films, but the mother of one of Dr. RX's victims who survived. This is initially intriguing, but quickly stagnates as talk takes over any suspense, giving either clues and suspects which are possibly red herrings. Anne Gwynne, as Knowles's wife, does nothing but fret, while Mantan Moreland and Shemp Howard provide low brow comedy. Other familiar faces pop up in needless roles, and it's surprising that they didn't include Lugosi, Karloff and Chaney in uncredited cameos. It's not hideous and flies by pretty quickly, culminating in a tense chase sequence, but I think most viewers can simply agree that this had been done before but better. The twist at the end makes really no sense and seems desperate to get chills when it really only provides groans.

Clients for a certain lawyer are bumped off by a maniacal physician who leaves his calling card by "Rx" along with each individual victim's number as he kills them via poison. Dr. Crispin hopes a well-renowned detective, John Church, will halt his plans of retirement and seek the identity of the killer before he winds up as the next victim(not to mention, rescue his law practice which took a hit thanks to the fact that if you attain Dudley as your lawyer you wind up dead).Patric Knowles, as Private Eye Jerry Church, many will know from FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN, is the star while Anne Gwynne(HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN)is his worried newspaper reporter wife, Kit Logan. With Samuel Hinds(THE RAVEN)as attorney Dudley Crispin, Paul Cavanagh(THE SCARLET CLAW)his brother John, bug-eyed Mantan Moreland as Church's oft-abused butler Horatio(sure to make African-Americans cringe as honkies push and slap him around as the poor guy is used as a bumbling foil), and Shemp Howard(of all people)as a goofy cop. Edmund MacDonald is a cop who wants Church to partner with him on the case of the mysterious psychopath, Dr. Rx. Marital shenanigans between Knowles and Gwynne are used as comic touches as is the casting of Moreland and Shemp to off-set the morbid plot of a killer who keeps to taking out low-life criminals in the mobster underworld. The signature of Rx could be the key to the murderer's undoing. Lionel Atwill, in coke-bottle glasses, is the character of suspicion(which means he's likely a red herring), but his part is so small he's almost a non-entity. I was disappointed in this one more because it plays too much for laughs and not chills. The only real "horror" to the movie is the gorilla scene where it appears that Church will be another victim on Rx's hit list.

A killer is going around murdering men who have eluded the clutches of the law thanks to the legal system, known only as Doctor Rx. The police ask private detective Jerry Church to help them, but he insists on returning to a legal practice in Boston. When DA Crispin asks for Church's help, he say he'll go watch the end of his latest case (involving gangster Tony Zarini) as a favor, but when Zarini mysteriously becomes Rx's 6th victim Church says he'll work on the case. This all changes when Church meets up with former flame, mystery writer Kit Logan, and after they marry Church now wants a peaceful life and decides to drop the case again, but after he is threatened by suspect Ernie Paul, he gets even worse treatment from Dr. Rx himself who plans to transplant Church's brain into the head of a gorilla. Is there no stopping this fiend? The film doesn't exactly stay in one genre with mystery, crime, comedy (thanks to Mantan Moreland & Shemp Howard), and romance, but you can't say the film isn't fun. After the midway mark of the film, it seems to get more interesting and curious to know what's going on here and when Dr. Rx actually appears, boy the film jumps up in fun. The cast is full of the usual Universal stock company of actors and they play their roles to the best they can. Fun film all together, Rating, 7.