In spite of a title which sounds like something for a horror film and the second billing of Lionel Atwill, this Universal programmer is a breezy "mystery" (not a lot of mystery here) which opens with a series of murders committed of men found innocent of a crime by a killer who leaves notes nearby signed, you guessed it, Doctor Rx.
Patric Knowles plays a dapper detective who lives in a beautiful penthouse apartment with a servant. Don't they all? He spends much of his time looking suave and bantering, with the servant (Manton Moreland), his girlfriend (Anne Gwynne) or a hard nosed police captain (Edmund MacDonald) who wants him to work on the Dr. Rx case because, well, he's hopeless to solve it on his own.
Lionel Atwill, prominently displayed in posters advertising the film and wearing coke bottle bottom glasses, also pops up on the rare occasion, as a suspect. But he's barely in this 65 minute feature. There is, for those who enjoy it, a lot more in the way of clowning from Mantan Moreland and Shemp Howard, the latter playing a police detective who, at one moment, plays craps with Moreland then arrests him for illegal gambling.
As the film is winding down suddenly, out of no where and seemingly from another film, there is a ten minute sequence involving a caged ape straight out of a mad scientist horror film. It's a fun over-the-top piece of stereotypical melodrama, certainly enjoyable while it lasts, but the viewer has to wonder, "Why didn't we get this kind of stuff in the first 50 minutes of this film?"
For those who enjoy Universal "B"s this is a minor effort, but they will still probably get a kick out of some of it, certainly the horror portion, brief as it is, towards the end.
Patric Knowles plays a dapper detective who lives in a beautiful penthouse apartment with a servant. Don't they all? He spends much of his time looking suave and bantering, with the servant (Manton Moreland), his girlfriend (Anne Gwynne) or a hard nosed police captain (Edmund MacDonald) who wants him to work on the Dr. Rx case because, well, he's hopeless to solve it on his own.
Lionel Atwill, prominently displayed in posters advertising the film and wearing coke bottle bottom glasses, also pops up on the rare occasion, as a suspect. But he's barely in this 65 minute feature. There is, for those who enjoy it, a lot more in the way of clowning from Mantan Moreland and Shemp Howard, the latter playing a police detective who, at one moment, plays craps with Moreland then arrests him for illegal gambling.
As the film is winding down suddenly, out of no where and seemingly from another film, there is a ten minute sequence involving a caged ape straight out of a mad scientist horror film. It's a fun over-the-top piece of stereotypical melodrama, certainly enjoyable while it lasts, but the viewer has to wonder, "Why didn't we get this kind of stuff in the first 50 minutes of this film?"
For those who enjoy Universal "B"s this is a minor effort, but they will still probably get a kick out of some of it, certainly the horror portion, brief as it is, towards the end.
