GamerTab That was an excellent one.

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

kevin olzak 1941's "The Strange Case of Doctor Rx" was part of Universal's popular SHOCK! package of classic horror films issued to television in the late 50s, turning up twice on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, on May 8 1976 (following Cameron Mitchell's "Nightmare in Wax") and Jan 29 1983 (solo). Yes, Lionel Atwill is criminally wasted, but what's worse is how the ads promoted it as a horror film prominently featuring his countenance (billed second, as he also was in "The Mad Doctor of Market Street"). Patric Knowles is the actual star, before "The Wolf Man" and "Mystery of Marie Roget," and has no trouble carrying the picture, but the on again-off again sparring between his detective Jerry Church and new bride Kit (Anne Gwynne) wears thin very quickly. Church has just returned from South America, only to be bludgeoned by the recent series of murders committed by a mysterious Doctor Rx (not to be confused with Atwill's 1932 "Doctor X"), who executes criminals that escape the justice system. The couple are likable performers, but the 'Battling Churches' were mercifully not granted a sequel (it really is less a horror film than a domestic mystery/whodunit, certainly no THIN MAN). Still entertaining for those who encountered it long ago, particularly for the excellent cast, with Samuel S. Hinds, Paul Cavanagh, Mary Gordon, pretty Jan Wiley, and Ray 'Crash' Corrigan as the gorilla Nbongo, in the lone nightmarish sequence that climaxes the picture. The underrated Mantan Moreland, who always rose above his material, easily steals every scene he's in, which the better known Shemp Howard fails to do (some 5 years before he rejoined The Three Stooges).

Scarecrow-88 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.

bensonmum2 Private Detective Jerry Church (Patric Knowles) is asked to investigate the strange deaths of several recently acquitted men. The only clue is the mysterious calling card found on the body of each victim of a man known only as "Doctor Rx". Soon after taking the case, Church is on hand to see a man named Zarini acquitted, only to fall dead before he can leave the courtroom. To solve the series of murders, Church is kidnapped, his wife's life is threatened, and he is strapped to a table by Doctor Rx and prepped for an operation involving organ transplantation with a gorilla. Will Church survive this ordeal and unmask the killer? As far as the classic Universal horror (and horror is used very loosely here) films of the 30s and 40s go, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx is about as bad as you'll run across. I place it at the bottom of the heap with the unfortunate She-Wolf of London. I described The Strange Case of Doctor Rx to a friend as a Charlie Chan movie without any of the charm or interest of a Charlie Chan movie. Knowles' Church doesn't make for a very effective or interesting lead. He's just too bland. Lionel Atwill is billed second, but he has so little screen-time you'll forget he's even in the film. And when Atwill is on screen, he's reduced to playing the role of the most embarrassing red herring I've ever run across. Gwynne is okay as the love interest / wife, but she can't save the film on her on. The highlights of the cast are Shemp Howard and, especially, Mantan Moreland. They have a scene together involving shooting dice that's laugh-out-loud funny. Moreland, as usual, steals most every scene in which he appears. Other weaknesses: the films plotting is plodding, the direction is pedestrian, the mystery isn't very mysterious, and the horror is pretty much missing altogether. As most everyone who has written about The Strange Case of Doctor Rx has pointed out, the one scene of real horror feels like it was cut from another film. Other than Moreland, the one bright spot worth mentioning is the "look" of the film. Like most other Universal pictures from this period, the movie looks like a million bucks. Overall, a very disappointing affair that I'll be generous to and give it a 4/10.

MARIO GAUCI This obscure Universal "B" horror flick is also included in that yet-to-be released Box Set I mentioned in my review of HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946) above and, unfortunately, while I would certainly say that this one is more readily enjoyable, my verdict overall is equally lukewarm. For one thing, much of the film's entertainment value stems more from the interaction between "master" Patrick Knowles (an insurance salesman moonlighting as a private dick!) and klutzy valet Mantan Moreland (who even devices a convoluted method for remembering his most basic instructions)! Also on hand are Knowles' girl Anne Gwynne, distinguished lawyer Samuel S. Hinds (whose guilty but off-the-hook clients are meeting sudden death at the hands of the enigmatic titular medico), the bumbling investigating duo of Edmund MacDonald and Shemp Howard (of "The Three Stooges" fame) and even a brief, thankless "red herring" cameo from a mousy(!) Lionel Atwill. As I intimated earlier, the surfeit of comic incident (not to mention the endless, dull chatter in which various parties, including Hinds' brother Paul Cavanaugh, try to talk Knowles out of taking on the case) – far outweighs the film's horror elements which are puzzlingly relegated to the last five minutes of the 66-minute movie – as if the screenwriter suddenly realized which genre he was supposed to be working in! What happens towards the end, however – with the belated "in costume" appearance of the raspy-voiced doc suddenly hard at work on transplanting the brain of his caged gorilla with that of Knowles?! – comes so utterly out of left field as to seem ridiculously far-fetched and, therefore, unable to redeem this would-be chiller. But, at least, Moreland and, to a lesser extent Howard, are funny