Whenever a high-profile murder suspect gets off Scott free by the courts, the vigilante “Dr. Rx” swoops in to see that justice is served. Super sleuth Jerry Church (Patric Knowles) is urged out of retirement to catch the killer before he strikes again.
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx feels like Universal’s attempt to create a detective franchise in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason, and Charlie Chan. The fact that Mantan Moreland plays Church’s perpetually put-upon valet particularly makes it feel like a latter-day Chan adventure, but done in Universal’s B-programmer style. This wasn’t a bad idea, but the problem is, the character of Church is thoroughly unlikeable.
I’ve enjoyed Knowles in other films. He did an especially good job in The Wolf Man, which came out the year before. It’s just that his character is an utterly detestable blowhard that it makes it hard to care whether or not he ever gets around to solving the case. What really makes it bad is the fact that he bosses Moreland around way too much. When Sidney Toler was giving Moreland the business as Charlie Chan, it was generally good-natured, but here, the dialogue is often downright nasty.
Although they make it out that Lionel Atwill is going to be the fiendish Dr. Rx, it’s another case of bait-and-switch. Atwill is usually fun to watch, but unfortunately, he isn’t given very much to do this time around. The same can be said for Shemp Howard, who plays a bumbling detective on the case. It’s a shame when such gifted comedians like Shemp and Mantan have to play second (and third) fiddle in such a dreary flick, especially when they are both obviously far above the material. At least the filmmakers were smart enough to let them share a scene together, which is far and away the best thing the movie has to offer.
Another reason to hate this movie: The big horror-related sequence winds up to be nothing more than (SPOILER) a trick by the killer to scare Knowles off the case. Seriously, why go through all the trouble of concocting a mad scientist lab complete with a killer gorilla in a cage for just a cheap scaring tactic?
In short, the only side effect from this Rx is sheer annoyance.
No comments:
Post a Comment